Department of Human Nutrition, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 30, 1958, Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
Qual Life Res. 2013 Mar;22(2):361-7. doi: 10.1007/s11136-012-0141-7. Epub 2012 Feb 25.
The WHOQOL instruments are intended for cross-cultural studies of quality of life (QoL) but African countries have been poorly represented in its development. This study aimed to explore the conceptual equivalence of WHOQOL-HIV in Ethiopia.
The fieldwork included home visits, interviews, and focus group discussions with HIV patients and caregivers.
We found that although WHOQOL-HIV includes many relevant facets, its applicability has several limitations in the Ethiopian setting. The most salient shortcomings of the instrument relate to the Social, Environmental and Religion/Spirituality/Personal Beliefs domains of the instrument. Themes not captured by the instrument include family responsibilities, disease disclosure, exclusion from common resources, basic needs, adequate food, and job opportunities. In addition, several of the tool's facets such as dependence on medicine seem less relevant. Also, the role of religion is more complex than captured in WHOQOL-HIV. We found that the tool is based on an individualist focus, which tends to overlook the social context of the patient.
We conclude that the conceptual equivalence of WHOQOL-HIV is only partially attained for use in Ethiopia. The findings from this qualitative study are used in the further process of developing and validating a QoL instrument for use in Ethiopia.
世界卫生组织生活质量量表（WHOQOL）旨在进行生活质量（QoL）的跨文化研究，但非洲国家在其发展过程中的代表性严重不足。本研究旨在探讨 WHOQOL-HIV 在埃塞俄比亚的概念等价性。
实地工作包括对 HIV 患者和护理人员进行家访、访谈和焦点小组讨论。
我们发现，尽管 WHOQOL-HIV 包含许多相关方面，但在埃塞俄比亚环境下，其适用性存在一些局限性。该工具最明显的缺点与工具的社会、环境和宗教/精神/个人信仰领域有关。该工具未涵盖的主题包括家庭责任、疾病披露、被排除在共同资源之外、基本需求、充足的食物和工作机会。此外，该工具的几个方面，如对药物的依赖，似乎不太相关。此外，宗教的作用比 WHOQOL-HIV 中所捕捉到的更为复杂。我们发现该工具基于个人主义的焦点，往往忽略了患者的社会背景。
我们得出结论，WHOQOL-HIV 的概念等价性在埃塞俄比亚的使用中仅部分实现。这项定性研究的结果用于进一步开发和验证适用于埃塞俄比亚的生活质量工具的过程。
