Significant life expectancy increase in HIV-positive patients undergoing antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has motivated inquiries into their quality of life.

To describe quality of life and reliability of WHO's Quality of Life Instrument ((WHOQOL HIV BREF) in depressed or non-depressed HIV/AIDS outpatients in a specialized facility in Rio de Janeiro.

Sectional study in 33 depressed (D) and 70 non-depressed (ND) HIV patients classified using Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI10), Hamilton's depression scale, viral load, CD4 and demographic data. Means of all six WHOQOL HIV BREF domains were compared by the Student t test. Inter-interviewer reliability was evaluated by intraclass correlation coefficient (CCI) with CI of 95%.

The sample comprised mostly of male (62.2%), single (42.9%) AIDS patients (51%), who considered themselves ill (66.3%) and were on HAART (78%). Reliability was excellent, varying from CCI 0.95 (0.93-0.97) for the environmental domain to CCI 0.99 (0.98-0.99) for psychological, level of independence and spiritual domains. Means for all domains in depressed patients (D) were lower than those seen in non-depressed patients (ND) (p<0.005): physical domain 11.0 (D) and 15.3(ND); psychological domain 10.1(D) and 14.7(ND); level of independence domain 10.8(D) and 14.1(ND); social relationship domain 11.9(D) and 15.2(ND); environmental domain 11.9(D) and 15.1(ND); spiritual domain 11.5(D) and 15.5(ND).

WHOQOL HIV BREF's showed excellent reliability and its six domains discriminated several quality of life aspects in depressed and non-depressed HIV/AIDS's patients. Depressed patients have a worst perception of their quality of life for all WHOQOL HIV BREF's domains.