Research

Health-related quality of life of Southern Chinese with chronic hepatitis B infection

Elegance TP Lam¹ , Cindy LK Lam¹ , CL Lai² , MF Yuen² , Daniel YT Fong³ and Thomas MK So⁴

¹  Department of Medicine (Family Medicine Unit), The University of Hong Kong, 3/F, 161 Main Street, Ap Lei Chau Clinic, Ap Lei Chau, Hong Kong

²  Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong

³  Department of Nursing Studies, The University of Hong Kong, 4/F, William MW Mong Block, Faculty of Medicine Building, 21 Sassoon Road, Hong Kong

⁴  Department of Medicine and Geriatrics, Princess Margaret Hospital, Hong Kong

author email corresponding author email

Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2009, 7:52doi:10.1186/1477-7525-7-52

Published:	5 June 2009

Abstract

Background

Few studies have evaluated the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of Southern Chinese with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection.

Aim

To evaluate the HRQOL of Chinese patients at different stages of CHB infection and to find out factors associated with HRQOL.

Methods

520 Chinese adult CHB patients of whom 156 were uncomplicated, 102 had impaired liver function, 139 had cirrhosis and 123 had hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were interviewed with a structured questionnaire, the SF-36 Health Survey version 2 (SF-36v2), and the Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire (CLDQ). The differences in SF-6D health preference values and SF-36v2 scores between each CHB group and Hong Kong population norms were assessed by t-test. ANOVA was used to compare the mean SF-6D health preference, SF-36v2 scores, and CLDQ scores among CHB groups. Multiple linear regressions were performed to identify determinants of HRQOL.

Results

CHB patients had significantly lower SF-36v2 scores than the population norm. The SF-6D values of CHB patients with uncomplicated disease, impaired liver function, HCC and cirrhosis were 0.755, 0.745, 0.720 and 0.701, respectively, all significantly lower than the population norm of 0.787. Advanced stage of CHB illness, anti-viral treatment, bilirubin level, psychological co-morbidity, younger age and female were associated with poorer HRQOL.

Conclusion

CHB infection had a negative impact on HRQOL. There was a progressive decrease in health preference values with CHB disease progression. The results can be used for the estimation of quality adjusted life years (QALYs) for CHB patients in cost effectiveness or cost utility studies.

Trial Registration

http://www.hkclinicaltrials.com webcite; HKCTR-151.