Abstract
As persons living with HIV (PLWH) live longer, HIV care has transitioned to chronic disease management with an important objective of maintaining satisfactory quality of life (QOL). The goal of this study was to compare mental and physical QOL between older and younger PLWH, and to identify factors associated with improved QOL within each age group. This cross-sectional study was conducted in a sample of PLWH enrolled in a randomized clinical trial in Kaiser Permanente Northern California evaluating a behavioral intervention to reduce alcohol use (N=614) and used both medical record and survey data. QOL was assessed by the SF-12 and included physical health summary (PHS) and mental health summary (MHS) scores, both with values between 0–100, with higher values representing better QOL. Multivariable linear regression was used to investigate the association between QOL and demographic, clinical, and psychological factors by age (18–50 and 50+ years). Participants were predominantly male (97.1%), non-Hispanic white (62.7%), and included 304 participants age 50+ and 310 participants <50 years of age. For PLWH age 50+, significant predictors of physical QOL were employment status (β=-6.3, p<0.0001) and depression (β=-6.0, p<.001), and significant predictors of mental QOL were alcohol or other substance use (β=-6.5, p<0.0001), depression (β=-7.9, p<0.0001), and anxiety (β=-13.4, p<0.0001). Depression was significantly related to QOL among PLWH in both age groups. Results highlight age group differences in predictors of QOL, as well as the importance of treating depression and substance use in order to maintain QOL for older PLWH.