AIDSQuest: The HIV/AIDS Survey Library
Survey Summaries

HAT-QoL (HIV/AIDS Targeted Quality of Life Instrument)

Overview
The purpose of the HAT-QoL is to identify quality-of-life concerns as reported by HIV-positive individuals, and to develop a measure to assess these concerns. Overall function, sexual function, disclosure worries, health worries, financial worries, HIV mastery, life satisfaction, medication concerns, and provider trust dimensions were refined by removing items using methods to maximize internal consistency and to minimize item redundancy.

Methodology/validity
The HAT-QoL includes nine dimensions—overall function, disclosure worries, health worries, financial worries, life satisfaction, sexual function, HIV mastery, medication worries, and provider trust. The HAT-QoL exhibited good psychometric properties, including low ceiling/floor effects, good internal consistency, and evidence for construct validity. The HIV/AIDS-targeted measure was developed in two linked studies. In the first study, group discussions with 42 HIV-positive individuals were used to generate item content for the new measure. In the second study, 201 HIV-positive individuals were cross-sectionally studied to identify dimensions and to reduce the number of items of the quality of life questionnaire that resulted from the first study.¹

For more information, please contact Dr. William C. Holmes at holmeswc@mail.med.upenn.edu.

¹ Holmes, W.C. and J.A. Shea. 1998. “A new HIV/AIDS-targeted quality of life (HAT-QoL) instrument: Development, reliability, and validity," Medical Care 36: 138–154.

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This page updated 21 August 2006

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