Health-related quality of life and impact of antiviral treatment in Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis C in Taiwan

Table 1 Demographic characteristics of 371 study subjects with and without chronic hepatitis C (CH-C)

	CH-C patients(n = 182)	Controls(n = 189)	P
Mean age (yr)	59.9±12.9	58.8±13.9	0.302
Sex (male:female)	91:91	106:83	0.254
Educational status (below high school:high school or above)	97:85	62:127	<0.001
Subjective difficulty to questionnaire(difficult:non difference:easy)	0.146	0.362	0.118
Acute illness during recent two weeks (yes:no)	47:135	47:142	0.905
Combined chronic diseases (yes:no)	94:88	115:74	0.076

¹Mann-Whitney U test or χ² test.

Table 2 Mean scores of eight domains of Short Form 36 (SF-36) Health-related Quality of Life (HRQOL) Questionnaire in subjects with and without chronic hepatitis C (CH-C)

SF-36 domains	CH-C patients(n = 182)	Non CH-C control group(n = 189)	P
General health	49.0±19.9	59.7±19.4	<0.001
Physical functioning	63.1±18.9	82.7±18.4	<0.001
Role-physical	58.0±43.9	69.6±40.3	0.008
Role-emotional	62.4±44.3	72.5±40.6	0.03
Social functioning	81.0±17.2	82.9±14.2	0.568
Body pain	72.3±16.9	70.5±17.6	0.319
Vitality	56.2±19.9	64.4±17.0	<0.001
Mental health	66.2±14.9	70.1±14.4	0.008

¹Mann–Whitney U test.

Table 3 Characteristics and mean scores of Short Form 36 (SF-36) Health-related Quality of Life (HRQOL) Questionnaire in 47 CH-C subjects before initiation of antiviral treatment

Items	Overallsubjects(n = 47)	Non-sustainedvirologicalresponder(n = 26)	Sustainedvirologicalresponder(n = 21)	P
Age (yr)	48.6±10.9	48.9±11.6	48.1±10.2	0.974
Sex (male:female)	41:06:00	24:02:00	17:04	0.386
General health	56.3±18.1	54.2±20.2	58.9±15.1	0.577
Physical functioning	74.6±15.8	75.0±11.3	74.0±20.3	0.352
Role-physical	77.7±34.7	76.9±30.8	78.6±39.8	0.343
Role-emotional	74.5±38.2	73.1±37.7	76.2±39.6	0.631
Social functioning	73.4±14.6	69.7±14.7	78.1±13.4	0.072
Body pain	73.5±18.8	71.5±19.8	75.9±17.6	0.322
Vitality	56.8±17.0	52.9±15.9	61.7±17.4	0.067
Mental health	65.6±15.8	61.5±13.6	70.7±17.2	0.024

¹Mann–Whitney U test and Fisher’s exact test.

Table 4 Comparison of mean scores of Short Form 36 (SF-36) Health-related Quality of Life (HRQOL) Questionnaire in 21 sustained virological responders at different time points of antiviral treatment¹

SF-36 domains/stages	Before treatment	At 12th wkof treatment	At the end of Treatment	At the 6th moafter stopping treatment
General health	58.9±19.1	59.1±19.5	67.9±11.5a	86.9±12.9b
Physical functioning	74.0±20.3	71.9±19.0	76.0±17.4	83.9±3.6a
Role-physical	78.6±39.8	77.4±40.2	91.7±24.1	100.0±0a
Role-emotional	76.2±39.6	74.6±43.3	87.3±30.7	98.2±7.6a
Social functioning	78.1±13.4	67.5±12.4a	72.0±11.8	89.9±10.9b
Body pain	75.9±17.6	67.4±21.3	77.1±15.3	94.1±10.9b
Vitality	61.7±17.4	60.0±14.0	63.1±16.0	81.0±8.5b
Mental health	70.7±17.2	65.7±11.0	67.0±16.0	82.9±6.7b

¹By paired t- test;

^aP<0.05;

^bP<0.01.

Table 5 Comparison of mean scores of Short Form 36 (SF-36) Health-related Quality of Life (HRQOL) Questionnaire in 26 non-sustained virological responders at different time points of antiviral treatment¹

SF-36 domains/stages	Before treatment	At the 12th wk of treatment	At the end of treatment	At the 6th mo after stopping treatment
General health	54.2±20.2	46.2±16.2b	53.1±19.7	54.1±19.3
Physical functioning	75.0±11.3	59.2±17.8b	68.9±12.7	75.7±8.7
Role-physical	76.9±30.8	51.9±43.0b	77.2±31.9	76.1±31.5
Role-emotional	73.1±37.7	51.3±45.4a	68.1±39.5	65.2±42.0
Social functioning	69.7±14.7	60.1±19.0b	71.7±15.6	69.0±17.6
Body pain	71.5±19.8	55.8±24.4b	67.2±17.1	67.7±24.0
Vitality	52.9±15.9	46.0±17.4a	52.8±18.0	55.0±14.5
Mental health	61.5±13.6	53.5±15.3a	60.5±14.6	61.7±15.3

¹By paired t- test;

^aP<0.05;

^bP<0.01.