Introduction:

HIV disease is a chronic illness. In Uruguay, there are no publications applying quality of life questionnaires in individuals younger than 18 years old with HIV.

Objectives:

to learn about the quality of life in children and adolescents living with HIV who are seen at the Pereira Rossell Hospital Centre. To relate the quality of life of the surveyed population with their immune condition and viral load. To learn about school activity of children older than 5 years old and adolescents and its relation with viral load. To compare parents’ perception of their children´s quality of life and school activity with that of the children themselves.

Method:

children and adolescents aged between 1 month and 18 years old with HIV were included in the study. PedsQL 4.0 questionnaire was applied. The results of children and adolescents were compared to the results of their parents and tutors and the viral load.

Results:

the perception of quality of life in this population is good and does not vary across the different age groups. The perception of parents and tutors and that of children and adolescents was correlated, the same as the perception on school activity. No association was found between undetectable viral load and a good quality of life, neither with good school scores.

Conclusions:

this disease does not seem to affect the daily life of this population according to the results of the questionnaire used.

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