Pharmacist Intervention and Quality of Life of HIV-Infected Patients in Nigeria
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Date
2017
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Society, Bangladesh.
Abstract
Assessment of quality of life of HIV-infected patients on combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) is
imperative in the management of the disease. This study was done to assess the quality of life (QOL) of
HIV-infected patients on cART before and after the pharmacist intervention. Consented HIV diagnosed
outpatients in a tertiary health care facility in Benin City that met inclusion criteria were consecutively
enrolled into the study. The QOL of these patients was determined in the four domains of WHOQOLHIV
BREF instrument. The raw scores for each domain in the WHOQOL-HIV BREF were calculated
by adding values of single items. The scores were computed on the scale of 0 to 100. One way ANOVA
and Student t-test were used to compare means. At baseline, mean QOL values were below 73. The
lowest values were in the social domain and the best values in the physical domain. The QOL values
increased steadily over the period of interventions with the highest mean QOL of 93.7 in the physical
domain. The improvement in QOL was significant at 6 and 9 months following interventions (p <
0.001). The values obtained are expressed in percentage. There was no statistically significant difference
between male and female patients on cART in all domains of QOL following the intervention. Patients
on Tenofovir + Emtricitabine + Efavirenz combination therapy had significantly higher scores in all the
domains of QOL as compared with other drug combinations used in the management of the patients.
The only educational level of the patients was significantly associated with the patients’ QOL. The
intervention in this prospective study was a success, as it led to increasing in QOL for the patients on
cART from the baseline level to the end of the 9th month.
Description
Keywords
World Health Organization, Quality of Life, Combined antiretroviral therapy, Benin City, Nigeria