Assessment Of The Quality Of Life Of People Living With Hiv/Aids Receiving Anti-Retroviral Therapy In The New Juaben Municipality

ABSTRACT Background: The Human Immune-Deficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic is a major public health issue confronting the world today. As a result of the effectiveness of the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) now live longer. Quality of life (QOL) of PLWHA has become a distinct and important patient-reported prognostic measure in HIV care. Objectives: This study was on the assessment of the QOL of PLWHA receiving antiretroviral therapy; the physical, psychological, environmental characteristics that affected the QOL; the effect of social relationships on QOL as well as the predictors of QOL of PLWHA in the New Juabeng Municipality. Methodology: This study was a cross sectional survey employing simple random sampling technique to recruit 420 participants. This study was conducted in the Eastern Regional Hospital, Koforidua. A standardized WHOQOL-HIV questionnaire was administered to participants to solicit for information on their demographic data and the determinants of QOL. Statistical analysis was done using STATA software (version 13). A correlational analysis was conducted to ascertain the relationship between social relationships and QOL of PLWHA. Furthermore a multiple linear regression was done to identify the predictors of QOL of PLWHA. Significance level was set at p