Shahram Saeidi

BACKGROUND: Quality of life (QOL) is one of the major factors to assessing the health and wellbeing of People living with HIV (PLWH). Likewise, improved QOL is among the prominent goals of patient treatment. This study was conducted to investigate the QOL of PLWH in Kermanshah, Iran. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 364 PLWH of Kermanshah between 2016 and 2017. Outpatients were selected as the sample through the convenience sampling method from HIV Positive Clients of Kermanshah Behavioral Diseases Counseling Center. The reasons for the selection of outpatients include: (a) some patients were substance users, homeless or did not have a fixed address to follow-up; (b) addresses and personal details that were registered on the first admission were incorrect or incomplete; (c) due to financial issues, some were forced to relocate frequently and were difficult to track; (d) some patients were convicts or prisoners, making it hard to find them after their release; (e) some of them were from other provinces, where managing access was not easy/possible. Data was collected using WHOQOL-HIV BREF questionnaire (Persian Version). Data also analyzed with STATA 14, and SPSS 23 using T-test and multiple regression. RESULTS: This study showed that mean (SD) age of PLWH was 40.21 (10.45) years. Females had better QOL than males except for spirituality, religion and personal beliefs. The gender differences disappeared in multivariate results. A significant association was observed between education and the independence, environment, and spirituality domains of QOL. In addition, being married was correlated with overall QOL, psychological and social relationships domains of QOL of PLWH. Drug use was a behavioral factor with negative influence on the QOL. CONCLUSION: This study found that marital status and drug use were the main predictors of various domains of QOL. Drug use was a behavioral factor with a negative influence on the QOL. Hence, it is recommended that health professionals, planners, and policymakers take effective measures to improve the status quo.

BACKGROUND: Quality of life is an important indicator for measuring health status, and information on quality of life of different groups in society can be used to assess the effect of interventions on health. AIMS: This study aimed to assess the relationship between urban poverty and perception of family socioeconomic status, and health-related quality of life in residents of informal settlements. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 432 residents of two neighbourhoods of informal settlements in Kermanshah in 2015. To measure poverty, the 16 indicators of 2011 Iranian census were used. The neighbourhoods were classified into three groups: high poverty (9.3%), middle poverty (49.2%) and low poverty (41.5%) levels. Health-related quality of life was assessed with the SF-36 questionnaire. The Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated and regression and ANOVA analyses were done. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences between the SF-36 scores for the three poverty levels, and no relationship between poverty and the health-related quality of life subscales (P > 0.05). A significant positive correlation was found between perception of family socioeconomic status and health-related quality of life (P < 0.05). In regression analysis, having a chronic illness, perception of family socioeconomic status, age and sex predicted the physical health domain of the SF-36, whereas perception of family socioeconomic status and having a chronic illness predicted the mental health domain. CONCLUSIONS: Subjective perception of family socioeconomic status can explain differences in health-related quality of life of low-income people.

OBJECTIVES: Geographical information systems (GISs) have made spatiotemporal understanding of geographical patterns possible and have contributed to the identification and analysis of factors relating to health care behaviours and outcomes. The present study is the first to examine the spatial distribution of HIV prevalence in the metropolis of Kermanshah, Iran, using GISs. METHODS: The research methods were descriptive, analytical and comparative. Additionally, data recorded for HIV-infected patients in 1996-2014 were used and then the loci of HIV infection in the metropolis of Kermanshah were identified and analysed spatially using ArcGIS (Esri, New York, NY, USA). RESULTS: HIV prevalence in the metropolis of Kermanshah increased from 1996 to 2014. Analysis of the spatial distribution of the prevalence of HIV using ArcGIS indicated the presence of clusters of HIV infection. The findings demonstrate that there were many clusters of high HIV prevalence throughout the city of Kermanshah and that these clusters increased in size during the study period. Furthermore, the statistics are indicative of a growing number of HIV-infected women as well as a significant reduction in the mean age of the HIV-infected female population. CONCLUSIONS: The spatial differences in HIV prevalence across the city of Kermanshah, as well as the identification of the resulting spatial clusters in different parts of the city, suggest that measures should be put in place to prevent the growth of these clusters and to reduce the number of women being infected with HIV.