Perceived Changes in Body Build and Image in Patients Who Are Now Taking or Recently Have Stopped Taking Anti-HIV Drugs

The purpose of this study is to learn how changes in body build affect the lives of people taking anti-HIV medications. By learning this, a set of questions can be created to help understand how changes in body build and image affect people living with HIV infection. A set of questions used to measure body image might be useful in future HIV studies. It may help doctors understand patient concerns about their body image and why some patients stop taking their anti-HIV medications.

A valid measure of body image would be useful for AACTG studies. Such a measure might permit investigators to examine dissatisfaction with body image as a predictor variable in analyses of premature study drug discontinuation, loss to follow-up, and study drug non-adherence, and as a secondary outcome in antiretroviral and fat redistribution treatment trials. Six focus group interviews, each lasting approximately 2 hours, are conducted at 4 AACTG sites. Separate groups are run for men and women, and male groups are segmented by sexual orientation. A moderator leads discussions about patients' perceived changes in body habitus and body image. Group interviews are audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Qualitative interview data are sent electronically to the Data Management Center, where they are thematically analyzed using qualitative data analysis (content analysis) techniques. Salient focus group findings are used to construct questionnaire items.