Abstract
Background Patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) have extrahepatic manifestations and impaired health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a leading cause of CLD, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study is aimed at assessing HRQOL in patients with HCV infection in the rural areas and identifying factors associated with impairment of HRQOL. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in a county of Liaoning Province in northeast China. HRQOL of patients with HCV infection was assessed using the chronic liver disease questionnaire (CLDQ) and EuroQol-5 dimensions (EQ-5D). Data were transformed to score comparisons of six major CLDQ domains, EQ index, and visual analog scale (VAS). Results A total of 397 (93.4%) subjects, including 67 healthy subjects (HSs), 314 patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC), and 16 patients with liver cirrhosis (LC) completed the study. The overall quartile CLDQ scores for HSs, patients with CHC, and patients with LC were 6.4 (6.0, 6.7), 5.8 (4.6, 6.4), and 4.1 (3.0, 6.0), respectively. The quartile scores of EQ index for the three groups were 1.0 (1.0, 1.0), 1.0 (0.8, 1.0), and 0.9 (0.6, 1.0), respectively. The median scores of EQ VAS for the three groups were 85.0, 60.0, and 60.0, respectively. Female sex, patients with family history of hepatitis, other comorbid chronic diseases, drinking, and disease duration ≥ 10 years were associated with significant improvement in overall CLDQ scores, and family history of hepatitis and other comorbid chronic diseases were considered predictive factors for EQ index and VAS, respectively. Conclusions Compared with HSs, HCV infection had a greater negative impact on HRQOL in patients with CHC and LC. The significant factors associated with HRQOL include female sex, patients with a family history of hepatitis, other comorbid chronic diseases, drinking, and disease duration ≥ 10 years. Patients with HCV infection in the rural areas should be paid careful attention regarding their HRQOL with proper health education and disease management.
Highlights
Viral hepatitis ranks first among infectious diseases, and the chronic hepatitis C (CHC) has currently been considered the “invisible killer” of chronic hepatitis in China [1]
All subjects were from rural areas in Jianping County, and a total of 425 subjects participated in the study, of which 28 were excluded because they did not complete the questionnaire
We found that the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection was significantly impaired in all domains compared to that of healthy subjects (HSs), signifying that chronic viral hepatitis is more commonly seen in the rural areas than the urban areas of China and that the chronic sequelae of chronic viral hepatitis, such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), may have greatly affected patients’ health
Summary
Viral hepatitis ranks first among infectious diseases, and the chronic hepatitis C (CHC) has currently been considered the “invisible killer” of chronic hepatitis in China [1]. Patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) have extrahepatic manifestations and impaired health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a leading cause of CLD, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HRQOL of patients with HCV infection was assessed using the chronic liver disease questionnaire (CLDQ) and EuroQol-5 dimensions (EQ-5D). Patients with family history of hepatitis, other comorbid chronic diseases, drinking, and disease duration ≥ 10 years were associated with significant improvement in overall CLDQ scores, and family history of hepatitis and other comorbid chronic diseases were considered predictive factors for EQ index and VAS, respectively. Patients with HCV infection in the rural areas should be paid careful attention regarding their HRQOL with proper health education and disease management
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