Health related quality of life and psychosocial correlates among HIV-infected adolescent and young adult women in the US

In this study HIV health-related quality of life (HIV-HRQOL) is examined among 179 behaviorally infected adolescent and young adult women. Modifiable psychosocial variables including depression, stigma, social support, and illness acceptance, and the biological end-points of CD4 cell count and viral load were explored in relation to HIV-HRQOL. The three factors of the HIV-HRQOL measure include current life satisfaction, illness related anxiety and illness burden. Bivariate linear regression analysis demonstrated statistically significant associations for all psychosocial variables and HIV-HRQOL factors (p <.01), but not foriological end-points. In multivariate linear regression analysis significant associations remained between: depression (p =.006), illness acceptance (p <.001), social support (p =.001), and current life satisfaction, and depression (p =.012), illness acceptance (p =.015), and illness burden. A trend in association was noted for HIV stigma, with current life satisfaction and illness related anxiety but did not reach statistical significance (p =.097 and p =.109 respectively). Interventions that effectively decrease stigma and depression and increase social support and illness acceptance will likely improve the well-being and quality of life of HIV-infected adolescent women.