Quality of life among adolescents living with HIV receiving care at CIRBA, Côte d'Ivoire: A Pilot Study

In Côte d’Ivoire, adolescents living with HIV constitute a vulnerable population whose quality of life remains poorly documented. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life of HIV- positive adolescents receiving care at the Centre Intégré de Recherches Biocliniques d’Abidjan (CIRBA) and to identify its determinants. A pilot, cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study was conducted among 32 adolescents aged 10 to 17 years receiving care at CIRBA in Abidjan. Quality of life was measured using the PedsQL™ HIV questionnaire. Spearman’s, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Fisher’s correlation tests were used to establish links between the various parameters. The results showed a predominance of females (65.6%) with a mean age of 14.1 ± 2.1 years. The school enrolment rate was high (96.9%). These adolescents lived either with their families (53.1%) or in an institution (Centre Espoir) (46.9%). Their overall quality of life was high (80.3 ± 4.1), with good scores in the treatment-related and psychosocial dimensions (≥ 82). In contrast, the understanding/communication dimension was significantly lower (52.6 ± 15.5), whilst the dimension related to HIV symptoms was moderate (65.7 ± 11.9). Analysis of associations showed that treatment adherence was significantly higher at the Centre Espoir than in a family setting (p = 0.018). Age was negatively correlated with understanding/communication (ρ = -0.40; p = 0.023), whilst the duration of antiretroviral treatment was positively associated with perception of treatment (ρ = 0.40; p = 0.025) and overall quality of life (ρ = 0.41; p = 0.020). No significant association was observed with gender, educational level or type of antiretroviral regimen (p > 0.05).