About PozQoL
Image provided by ViiV Healthcare
What is PozQoL?
The PozQoL Scale is an empirically validated quality of life scale for people with HIV.
The Scale was developed through a partnership project of the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS); ViiV Healthcare; the National Association of People with HIV Australia (NAPWHA); Living Positive Victoria; Positive Life NSW; and Queensland Positive People.
The Project was built on the principles of Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV (GIPA) .
It began because Australian HIV services expressed a need for better ways to evaluate their impact. More specifically, they needed an easier way to measure whether their programs improved people’s quality of life (QoL).
PLHIV led and were involved in the entire process of developing the PozQoL Scale. They:
- Identified key domains of wellbeing for PLHIV
- Chose the questions to ask within each domain
- Conducted research and analysed results
- Trialled the scale
- Wrote and published peer-reviewed journal papers
As a result, we can be sure that the domains of wellbeing measured by the Scale are relevant and important for PLHIV today. We also know that it is reliable and appropriate to use with PLHIV.
Why use PozQoL?
The most important benefit of using PozQoL is that it can help improve service quality and health outcomes for people living with HIV.
Other benefits include that the PozQoL scale is:
- Short and easy to use
- Relevant to the current experiences of people living with HIV
- Available in multiple languages
- Free to use (for non-commercial purposes)
Improve service quality and health outcomes for people living with HIV
Focus on quality of life (QoL) is important when working with people living with HIV (PLHIV). Asking the right questions can help service providers better understand their clients. This leads to better-informed decisions about their care.
The PozQoL Scale measures (QoL) among PLHIV. Therefore, service providers can use PozQoL as a tool to help them improve service quality and achieve better health outcomes for their HIV-positive patients and clients.
Short and easy to use
The PozQoL Scale has only 13 items. This makes it easier for clinicians and community and peer support workers to use in their day-to-day work than longer scales.
Because PozQoL is so short, it is easy to quickly identify areas of concern and spend more time focusing on client needs and priorities.
Relevant to the current experiences of people living with HIV
PozQoL was developed between 2016 and 2019.
Some older scales were developed prior to modern HIV treatments. Many older treatments were less effective and had more complex dosing schedules. They also more commonly led to some health problems. Many of the older scales are also from a time before we knew that HIV treatment can prevent HIV transmission.
PozQoL’s design kept in mind more recent medical technologies for PLHIV (like PrEP and TasP/U=U). This is important because such technologies can greatly impact on PLHIV’s physical, mental, and social health.
As such, PozQoL is more relevant to the lived reality of many PLHIV today than some of the older scales .
Available in multiple languages
PozQoL has been translated into several other languages. This makes it more accessible to people from non-English-speaking backgrounds.
Free to use
PozQoL is free for non-commercial purposes.
We encourage anyone providing clinical, peer-led, or community-based services for PLHIV to take advantage of PozQoL in their day-to-day practice.
We also welcome researchers to conduct studies using or testing the PozQoL Scale.