Reconsidering the Assessment of Symptom Status in HIV/AIDS Care

Symptom management is one of the predominant components of HIV/AIDS care. Frameworks that adequately posses sufficient construct validity and that reflect the symptom experience related to HIV disease, treatment, and medications have been limited. Without validated measures, nurses and other care providers are limited in their ability to accurately assess symptomology and to make appropriate changes to care regimens. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate a method for evaluating symptom status based on the Sign and Symptom Check-List for Persons with HIV disease (SSC-HIV) as well as to provide further support as to the validity of the SSC-HIV. The method to evaluate symptom status that is shown uses a measurement model approach that allows for the assessment of symptom clusters and may be more appropriate than traditional approaches. The sample for this analysis comes from the AIDS Time-Oriented Health Outcome Study. Results further support the SSC-HIV as a valid measure of HIV-related symptoms.