CBT and Quality of Life of People With HIV, COVID-19 and Anxiety or Depression

Introduction: Confrontational measures such as social isolation and confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the experience of illness have affected people's emotional health by generating or exacerbating anxious and depressive symptoms. This effect may be magnified in people with HIV, contributing to the deterioration of their quality of life. Objective: To determine the effect of virtual Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on the quality of life of patients with HIV, COVID-19, and anxiety or depression of Social Security. Design: Experimental open-label randomized clinical trial. To be conducted at the hospital during 6 months. Materials and Methods: Participants will be over 18 years of age with HIV from the infectious disease service of the hospital selected for this study. Quality of life, depression, anxiety, multimorbidity and post COVID-19 symptoms will be evaluated. Data will be collected by telephone calls and online questionnaires. Data will be recorded using Redcap online software. To evaluate the effect of virtual cognitive behavioral therapy measured at 4 months, McNemar's Chi-square tests will be used for categorical dependent variables and Student's t-tests for related samples in the case of numerical dependent variables using STATA v. 17.0 statistical software. Ethical aspects: The study will be reviewed by the hospital services and the institutional ethics committee. The confidentiality of each participant's information will be maintained through codes that do not allow patient identification.