Oral medicine
Do oral lesions associated with HIV affect quality of life?

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Objective

To assess the impact of oral lesions on quality of life (QOL) in HIV-positive (HIV+) individuals using the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP).

Study design

This was a cross-sectional analytic study that compared 2 groups of HIV+ patients. Group 1 (n = 71) consisted of patients who presented with oral manifestations of HIV infection. Patients in group 2 (n = 79) were also HIV positive but had no oral lesions. The QOL measures were assessed by either simple frequency counts or the use of item weights.

Results

Oral candidiasis was the most common oral lesion diagnosed. Patients in group 1 reported significantly greater impacts (P < .05) for all 7 subscales in OHIP.

Conclusions

Oral lesions associated with HIV infection negatively affect the oral health–related QOL in infected patients.

Section snippets

Materials and Methods

This was a cross-sectional analytic study that compared 2 groups of HIV-positive patients (n = 150). For inclusion, patients had to be able to communicate in English, they had to be >18 years old at the time of study, HIV positivity had to be confirmed by a laboratory test, and signed informed consent had to be provided.

Participants in group 1 consisted of HIV-positive patients who presented with oral manifestations associated with HIV infection at the time of examination and interview. The

Demographic variables

A total of 150 HIV-positive patients (71 group 1, 79 group 2) were included in this study. Table I highlights some of the demographic variables that were assessed and compared in the study groups. The majority of the participants in both groups were female (group 1 67%, group 2 75%), and over 90% of patients interviewed were black. As shown in Table I, there were no significant differences (P > .05) noted for any of the demographic and patient-derived variables except mean age, which was

Discussion

The essential question that this study sought to answer was: “Do oral lesions associated with HIV infection affect oral health–related quality of life in HIV-positive patients?” To date, there is only 1 study indexed in the Medline database that has examined the impact of oral lesions associated with HIV infection on oral health–related quality of life. That study (Coates et al. [1996]15) differed fundamentally, in terms of its methodology, from the present study. The groups compared in the

Conclusion

Patients with lesions associated with HIV infection were found to have a significantly lower oral health–related quality of life than HIV-positive patients who have no oral lesions, when assessed using the OHIP instrument. Oral candidiasis, angular cheilitis, and oral hairy leukoplakia were the most common conditions associated with HIV infection in this cohort of patients.

The 2 methods used in the analysis of the data obtained with the OHIP instrument appear to have sufficient discriminant

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