Abstract
ObjectivesWe assessed health-related quality of life (HRQOL), its associated factors, and examined measurement properties of the EuroQol - 5 Dimensions - 5 Levels (EQ-5D-5L) in HIV/AIDS patients.MethodsA cross-sectional multi-site survey was conducted in 1016 patients (age: 35.4 ± 7.0 years; 63.8% male) in three epicenters of Vietnam. Internal consistency reliability, convergent validity, and discriminative validity of the EQ-5D-5L and a visual analogue scale (VAS) were evaluated. Tobit censored regression models were used to identify predictors of HRQOL in HIV/AIDS patients.ResultsThe mean EQ-5D-5L single index and VAS were 0.65 (95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 0.63; 0.67) and 70.3 (95% CI = 69.2; 71.5). Cronbach’s alpha of five dimensions was 0.85. EQ-5D-5L has a good convergent validity with VAS (0.73). It discriminated patients at different HIV/AIDS stages, duration of ART, and CD4 cell count. Predictors of poorer HRQOL included being female, lower education level, unemployment, alcohol and drug use, CD4<200 cells/mL, and advanced HIV/AIDS stages.ConclusionThe EQ-5D-5L has good measurement properties in HIV/AIDS patients and holds potentials for monitoring ART outcomes. Integration of HRQOL measurement using EQ-5D-5L in HIV/AIDS clinical practice could be helpful for economic evaluation of HIV/AIDS interventions.
Highlights
Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has become an important indicator to assess outcomes of health interventions, as well as inform patient management and policy development
There have been a number of instruments, both generic or HIV/AIDS specific, applied in HIV/AIDS patients, for instance, the WHOQOL-HIV, MOS-HIV, EuroQOL - 5 Dimensions (EQ-5D), SF-6D [8,9,10,11]
Generic preference-based measures such as EQ-5D, SF-6D, in contrast, come in a short and convenient form, would be easier to administer in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) measurements
Summary
Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has become an important indicator to assess outcomes of health interventions, as well as inform patient management and policy development. Generic measure included health status profile or utility (preference-based) measures that provide a summary of HRQOL. Specific measures are those instruments which focus on problems associated with single disease states, patient groups, or areas of function [7]. The EuroQOL Group has introduced a 5-level version of the EQ-5D This promises better measurement properties in terms of improving the instrument’s sensitivity and reducing ceiling effects by increasing the number of severity levels [13,14]. Since this version is newly introduced, evidence of its improvements in psychometric properties is very limited
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
