HepaDisk – A new quality of life questionnaire for HCV patients

Abstract

a b s t r a c tBackground: Since most patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection now receive treatment irrespective of liver disease severity, special attention to patient quality of life (QoL), including psycho-social aspects, is required. No QoL questionnaire is specific for patients with HCV. Aims: To develop and validate a short Italian questionnaire (HepaDisk) assessing the QoL of patients affected by HCV with intuitive graphic results that is understandable by patients and physicians. Methods: A questionnaire, drafted by a steering committee, underwent a Delphi survey. A multicenter, observational study was conducted to validate the developed HepaDisk versus other tools (CLDQ-I, SF-36, WPAI:HCV), and to evaluate its correlation with disease severity in Italian patients with HCV. Results: The 10-item questionnaire was validated in 214 patients. HepaDisk showed a high correlation with CLDQ overall score and WPAI:HCV activity impairment (Spearman's rank correlation: 0.651 and 0.595, respectively) and a lower correlation with SF-36. Strong internal consistency (Cronbach coefficient: 0.912), good test-retest reliability (Pearson's correlation coefficient: 0.789; 95% CI, 0.714-0.865), and responsiveness to changes among improved patients were demonstrated. Conclusion: HepaDisk is a reliable and user-friendly tool that can monitor disease impact on patient QoL over time, providing a visual representation easily understandable by both patients and physicians.

New suggested weighed score for evaluating impact of chronic liver diseases on health-related quality of life patients among a sample in Babylon Governorate in Iraq

“…The Present study, recorded that (16.5%) of patients were currently smokers and about twelve percent were ex-smoker, this could be due to environmental and social habit, which is agree with the study conducted in Italy by [11], where 24.9 were smoker and 19.2 were ex-smoker. Another study is in agreement with our study regarding the current smoking done in Nepal by [12].…”

Health-related quality of life in patients with chronic hepatitis C treated with sofosbuvir-based treatment at 1-year post-sustained virological response

“…Third, we used an SF-8 to evaluate the HRQoL of patients. However, HRQoL is composed of comprehensive QoL (e.g., SF-8, SF-36, EQ-5D [16]) and disease-specific QoL (e.g., chronic liver disease questionnaire [17], cirrhosis-related symptom score [18], HepDisk [19]). Disease-specific QoL is highly responsive because the items focus on disease-specific symptoms.…”