Abstract:
Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important outcome measure among HIV infected patients
receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). When HIV infected patients coinfected with Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) the
problem become severe because VL accelerates HIV replication and disease progression. The impact of VL on the
quality of life of HIV infected patients has not been studied. In this study in Ethiopia, we compared the quality of
life of HIV infected patients with and without VL.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2015 to September 2016 in selected health centers
and hospitals, in Northwest Ethiopia. Data on quality of life was collected by trained nurses. The instrument used
to collect the data was the short Amharic version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life for HIV clients
(WHOQoL-HIV). Depression was assessed using the validated version of Kessler scale. Data was entered and
analyzed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive statistics, bivariate and multivariate linear regression model was used
to summarize the results.
Results: A total of 590 study participants were included in the study with response rate of 95%. Of the 590
patients included in our study 125 (21%) were HIV-VL coinfection. HIV-VL coinfected patients had a lower quality
of life in all the domains as compared to HIV patients without VL. Depression was consistently and strongly
associated with all the quality of life domains of both groups. Also, in HIV infected patients a longer duration in
ART was associated with higher HRQoL domains except for the spiritual and level of independence domains.
With regard to HIV-VL coinfected patients, a longer duration in ART was associated with psychological, spiritual
and level of independence domains of HRQoL. Demographics, clinical, and treatment characteristics resulted few
significant associations with HRQoL domains of both groups.
Conclusion: HIV-VL coinfected patients had a poor quality of life in all the domains of the WHOQoL-HIV instrument.
Depression, duration of ART and education were strongly associated with the quality of life. Depression should be
targeted for intervention to improve the quality of life.
