Poor Quality of Life in HIV-Infected Men Who Have Sex with Men is Associated with Excess-Type Constitution of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Abstract

Introduction. This study explored the pathological constitution as it relates to low quality of life in HIV-infected MSM patients, as a reference for clinical treatment. Methods. It had a cross-sectional research design using structured questionnaires to collect data, including patient’s basic data, CD4+, CD4+/CD8+ ratio, Wang Qi constitution, and WHOQOL-BREF-Taiwan version questionnaires. We considered the association between constitutions and quality of life of HIV-infected MSM patients. Results and Discussion. The project accepted 203 HIV-infected MSM participants. The three most common pathological constitutions were Yang deficiency 15.5%, yin deficiency 13.1%, and qi deficiency 11.2%. The study determined scores for various quality of life domains: psychological (13.44 ± 2.27), social relationship (13.81 ± 2.80), physiological (14.43 ± 2.41), and environmental (14.78 ± 2.21). The TCM constitution is strongly correlated with the quality of life. Excess constitution had the worst quality of life. Comparing the infected time over one year with the time of <0–2 weeks, the adjusted odds ratios (AOR) were determined for abnormal CD4+ and CD4+/CD8+ ratio (OR: odds ratio: 0.03, 0.07, respectively, $p<0.001$ ). Compared with the Gentleness constitution, there is a significant difference between the Deficiency and Excess constitution in sleep status and negative mood by multiple regression analysis ( $p<0.001$ ). Conclusion. The Excess constitutions was correlated with worse quality of life. Even if the immune system was restored, the psychosocial domain, sleep status, and negative mood were not improved.