Impact of chronic venous disease on quality of life: Results of vein alarm study.

Abstract

Chronic venous disease (CVD) affects millions of people and negatively impacting the patient's quality of life (QoL) and most of the patients are diagnosed with CVD in advanced stages. The impact of newly diagnosed CVD on QoL has not been evaluated by other studies in Romania. The aim of this study was to assess the QoL for adult patients newly diagnosed with CVD addressing to the General Practitioner's (GP) office in Romania between June to August 2016. Patients included in the study were adult, signing the inform consent form, newly diagnosed with CVD or patients diagnosed with CVD, without CVD treatment the past 6 months. Data on demographic distribution, risk factors, clinical profiles, CVD symptomatology, QoL parameters, as well as pharmacological management practice were collected. The study included 1,893 patients (79.08% females) with 50.4% of patients in the age group 51-70 years. The most frequent CVD symptoms reported, were heavy leg sensation (85.74%), swelling of the feet (77.28%) and pain (73.11%). The most frequent CVD signs were telangiectasia and reticular veins (79.19%), varicose veins (65.77%) and edema (53.35%). The clinical, aetiological, anatomical and pathophysiological (CEAP) classification placed most of the patients in C3 class (31.85%), followed by C2 class (28.00%), C1 class (21.02%) and C4a (8.87%). Most of the patients reported 'low' or 'moderate' intensity of the CVD symptoms. QoL was affected for most of the patients at 'a mild' or 'moderate' degree, being noticed as a significant negative impact on physical, psychological, and social functioning components of QoL, correlated with CEAP class (P<0.001). Data regarding correlation of CEAP class, CVD symptoms and impact on QoL identified a significant correlation between all analyzed components (P<0.001). Study results prove that CVD diagnosis was established with relative delay and CVD is negatively affecting patients' QoL. Additional research will be needed to identify the long-term impact of CVD on QoL of the affected patients and their families.