Validity evidence for the Clinic Screening Tool for HIV (CST-HIV) addressing factors that undermine health-related quality of life in people living with HIV.

Authors

María José Fuster-RuizdeApodaca, Patricia Recio, Trenton M White, Carlos Iniesta, Rebeca Izquierdo, Julián Alexander Portocarrero, Jeffrey V Lazarus, Inmaculada Jarrín

Published in

Frontiers in psychology. Volume 17. Pages 1940441. Epub Oct 16, 2026.

Abstract

This study evaluated the psychometric properties and clinical validity of the Clinic Screening Tool for HIV (CST-HIV) to determine whether the CST-HIV demonstrates a reliable multidimensional structure and clinically meaningful associations with established patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) and HIV clinical markers.
A cross-sectional study was conducted within the Spanish CoRIS multicentre cohort, including 286 adults with HIV. Participants completed the CST-HIV and validated PROMs. Clinical indicators (CD4⁺ cell count and percentage, HIV-1 RNA viral load, and non-AIDS events) were collected at current and retrospective time points. Analyses included confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency, convergent and discriminant validity, associations with clinical markers, and age-group comparisons.
Confirmatory factor analysis showed good model fit, with satisfactory internal consistency across domains (ω = 0.86-0.89). CST-HIV shows convergent validity, including psychological distress with PHQ-4 (r = 0.79), anticipated stigma with HIV stigma (r = 0.65), sexuality with sexual satisfaction (r = -0.74), sleep and fatigue with insomnia severity (r = 0.79), and material deprivation with social exclusion (r = 0.67) (all p < 0.001). Anticipated stigma (ρ = -0.16, p = 0.014) and material deprivation (ρ = -0.18, p = 0.005) were associated with lower CD4⁺ counts, while material deprivation was associated with higher viral load (ρ = 0.13, p = 0.046). Sexual satisfaction was lower among participants aged ≥50 years (d = -0.47, p < 0.001).
The CST-HIV demonstrates strong psychometric performance, supporting its use as a valid, brief, multidimensional screening tool to inform person-centered HIV care and clinical intervention.

PMID:
42964230
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 31 Oct 2026.

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