Qualidade de vida de pessoas vivendo com HIV / AIDS no Norte de Minas Gerais e seus determinantes

Abstract

The transformation of HIV/AIDS in chronic disease produced important questions about the quality of life of people living with this disease. This study analyzed the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS in the northern region of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It is a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study that evaluated 226 individuals living with HIV/AIDS over the age of 18, living mainly in 52 cities of the middle region North of Minas Gerais in treatment in two Care Services Specialized in HIV/AIDS and assisted between May 2013 and May 2014. They used for data collection instruments: demographic questionnaire, clinical questionnaire, Mini Mental State Examination, Beck Depression Inventory, CAGE and the specific questionnaire to assess quality of life from World Health Organization WHOQOL-HIV Bref. In that population 51.8% are male, the minimum age was 19 years, the maximum 73 and average of 44 years. 16.4% are illiterate, 35.4% have only primary school, 16.4% completed elementary school, 25.7% have secondary education and only 6.2% have higher education. Regarding the individual income 56.3% earn up to one minimum wage and 20.9% earn between 1.1 and 2 times the minimum wage, 11.7% receive between 2.1 and 3 wages and 11.2% receive more than 3 salaries minimum; according to economic classification 8.0% belong to the class "B", 54.9% for class "C" and 37.2% are in Class "D" and there was no patient of the class "A" in this study. The use of antiretroviral medication was confirmed to 89.8% of patients, 7.1% showed CD4 cell count below 200 cells/mm3 37.2% between 201 and 500 and above 55.8% 500 cels/mm3. Quality of life was self assessed as good or very good by 65% of respondentes. The assessment carried out using the WHOQOL-HIV Bref showed that, overall, the quality of life of this population is at an intermediate level, with the highest scores found in the spirituality area and the smallest in the environment domain. Depressive symptoms impact the quality of life in all areas: physical OR = 11.3, psychological OR = 12.4, OR = 7.2 level of independence, social relationships OR = 4.1, environment OR = 5, 7, spirituality OR = 5.3, and overall quality of life OR = 3.0, all with CI = 95% and p <0.001. Symptoms of depression were present in 43.3% of these patients. Sociodemographic variables as female, have no employment, low individual income, belonging to lower economic classes and clinics variables such as fever, sweating, joint pain and pneumonia were also associated with worse quality of life of these people. In conclusion, in general, the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS in the northern region of Minas Gerais, presents an intermediate level, that is, it is good. However, the results showed that the symptoms of depression are strongly associated with worst quality of life of this population and with much greater impact than the sociodemographic and clinical variables.