Health-Related Quality of Life and Associated Factors among People Living with HIV /AIDS Following ART Clinic in Jimma University Specialized Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia: A Facility- Based Cross-Sectional Study

Background:HIV care of people living with HIV /AIDS (PLWH/A) is critical for fruitful HIV inhibition, treatment and provision of quality of life. The goal of Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) is to suppress viral replication, lessen morbidity and death, and improve patients’ quality of life. The quality of life of HIV/AIDS patients is not well appraised in the study area beforehand. Therefore, this study assessed the health-related quality of life and associated factors among people living with HIV /AIDS followed by ART Clinic in Jimma University Specialized Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia.Methods:We used facility based cross-sectional study design and 351 samples selected by systematic random sampling from Jimma University Specialized Hospital ART clinic in March-2014. Data were collected through interviewer-administered questionnaires and analyzed by using SPSS version 20.0 software. Descriptive analysis (frequency and percentage) was calculated. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify associated factors. The association between the explanatory and dependent variables was assessed at p-value of less than 0.05. The results were presented in a narrative form, tables and graphs.Results:From the total respondents, 143 (40.7%) of them have low quality of life in general. Of these, 238 (67.8%) of them had low psychological domain, 136 (38.7%) had low physical domain and 223 (63.5%) low social domain. The age ≤ 39 years (AOR = 2.381 [95% CI = 1.238, 4.579]), Currently employed (AOR= 3.509 [95% CI = 1.900, 6.482]), current CD4 count ≥ 250 cell/ml (AOR = 2.663 [95% CI = 1.363,5.203]), current WHO Stage I-II (AOR = 4.772 [95% CI = 2.308, 9.865]), good general health condition (AOR = 2.609 [95%CI = 1.372, 4.961]), no comorbidity (AOR = 7.737 [95% CI = 4.146, 4.438), friendly social relationship (AOR = 5.395 [95% CI = 2.781, 10.467]), other persons reminded their drugs took time (AOR = 3.363 [95% CI = 1.629, 6.943]) and drunk alcohol (AOR = 1.915[95% CI = 1.039, 3.529]) were identified as the predictors of health related quality of life.Conclusion:Findings of this study indicate that the significant number of participants exists on low-level- of health related quality of life in general. The age, occupation, current CD4 count level, current WHO stage status, general health conditions, comorbidity conditions, status of their social relations, their conditions due to lack of support, reminder of drugs taking time, and alcohol drinking status have been observed to have a statistically significant association with their health-related quality of life status.