The Impact Of Hepatitis B On Quality Of Life

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The Impact Of Hepatitis B On Quality Of Life

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With over 350 million people affected worldwide, infection with the chronic

hepatitis B virus causes considerable distress to individuals and results in

substantial global economic loss through costs of treatment and indirectly,

through lost productivity. However, the impact on the quality of life of

patients is not well studied and despite the availability of new treatment

options, little information is available on how infected and uninfected persons

value the impact of health states arising from the hepatitis B virus.

The objective of this study was to estimate preference-based " utility weights " ,

for six increasingly severe health states that occur with chronic infection with

the hepatitis B virus. This information was elicited from respondents living in

six jurisdictions, in North America, Europe and Asia, that ranged from low to

high prevalence of chronic hepatitis B infection.

The authors interviewed 534 chronic hepatitis B-infected patients and 600

uninfected respondents making this one of the largest valuations of health

states ever published, for any disease. The results show that the chronic

hepatitis B and compensated cirrhosis health states have a moderate impact on

health related quality of life, and there is a large detrimental effect on

quality of life associated with decompensated cirrhosis and hepatocellular

carcinoma. There were geographic differences in the impact of the different

health states. A greater impact on quality of life was observed in Hong Kong and

mainland China which are jurisdictions with high prevalence of disease. The

authors speculate that finding be due to greater fear of the social consequences

of infection. A practical implication of the inter-country differences is that

economic evaluations may benefit from country-specific utility estimates.

The study represents a successful collaboration of outcomes researchers from

Bristol-Myers Squibb Uchenna Iloeje, Eskinder Tafesse and Jayanti Mukherjee,

academic liver specialists Kris Kowdley, Gish and Bzowej, and

academic health services researchers Levy and Briggs.

The original study, " The Impact of Chronic Hepatitis B on Quality Of Life: A

Multi-National Study of Utilities from Infected and Uninfected Persons, " is to

be published in Value in Health.

Value in Health is the official journal of the International Society of

Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR).

Value in Health (ISSN 1098-3015) publishes papers, concepts, and ideas that

advance the field of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research and help health

care leaders to make decisions that are solidly evidence-based. The journal is

published bi-monthly and has a regular readership of over 3,000 clinicians,

decision-makers, and researchers worldwide.

ISPOR is a nonprofit, international organization that strives to translate

pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research into practice to ensure that society

allocates scarce health care resources wisely, fairly, and efficiently.

Source: Value in Health Volume 11 Issue 5

http://www.hcvadvocate.org/news/newsRev/2008/NewsRev-239.html#_The_Impact_Of

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