Quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS: Effects of illness perception and coping strategies

This study aims to investigate the quality of life (QOL) predictors of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA),
from the perspective of Leventhal’s Self-Regulation Model, in which the influence of the illness perception on QOL is mediated
by coping strategies. Ninety-five PLWHA answered to the instruments Brief IPQ, Brief Cope and WHOQOL-HIV BREF
concerning, respectively, illness perception, coping strategies and QOL. The results indicate that illness perception has direct and
indirect effects in QOL, mediated by coping strategies. The more HIV is perceived as threatening, the worse is the perception
of QOL of PLWHA; however, the increased use of acceptance, distraction and instrumental support coping strategies and the
less use of behavioral disengagement and positive reinterpretation could mitigate this negative effect.