The relationship between self-reported physical activity level, haematological indices, and health-related quality of life of people living with human immunodeficiency virus

Abstract

Introduction: : At present no study has evaluated the correlation of self-reported physical activity (PA) with haematological indices and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of people living with human immune deficiency virus (HIV). The study examined the relationship between self-reported PA level, haematological indices, and HRQOL of people living with HIV. Material and methods: This cross-sectional study involved 80 participants recruited from the HIV clinic of a tertiary hospital. A self-structured questionnaire, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and the RAND-36 questionnaire were used to assess socio-demographic data, PA level, and HRQOL, respectively. The participants’ current haematological indices: haemoglobin (HB), white blood cell (WBC) count, and neutrophil were obtained through laboratory blood analysis. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to determine the relationship between the variables of interest. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the difference between the means of the variables across the PA levels. Results: There was a trend of increase in haematological parameters and in the scores of the subdomains of HRQOL as the PA level increased. However, there was no statistically significant correlation between PA level and the haematological parameters. There was satisfactory scoring in the general HRQOL of the participants, but only the sub-domain of social functioning (r = 0.299, p = 0.041) and pain (r = 0.299, p = 0.041) in the HRQOL was significantly positively correlated with PA level (measured in METS). Conclusions: Conclusions: PA may improve the HRQOL and the haematological status of people living with HIV, therefore PA should be recommended as an adjunct therapy to pharmacotherapy in management of HIV infection in order to improve HRQOL.