Validation of the World Health Organization quality of life instrument in patients with HIV infection

We studied the reliability and validity of the World Health Organization quality of life ( WHOQOL) assessment instrument in patients with human immunodeficiency virus ( HIV) infection. WHOQOL- BREF was used to assess 136 HIV- infected outpatients. The results were analyzed and compared with data from 213 healthy persons. The Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency ranged from 0.74 to 0.85 across domains in HIV- infected patients. The test -retest reliability ranged from 0.64 to 0.79 across domains at average 4- week retest interval. Factor analysis identified four major factors: social, psychological, environment, and physical, consistent with the four domains of the instrument. The scores of all four domains correlated positively with self- evaluated health statu and happiness ( r range: 0.52 - 0.60 and 0.55 - 0.73 across domains, respectively), and correlated negatively with the number and severity of symptoms ( r range: -0.40 to -0.47 and -0.41 to -0.52, respectively). The scores of physical, psychological and social domains, but not the environment domain, discriminated between healthy person and HIV- infected patients ( all p < 0 : 01). We conclude that the WHOQOL- BREF can be a useful quality- of- life instrument in patients with HIV infection.