Quality of life in patients with HBV infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Journal article

Background and Aims: Despite nearly 250 million people worldwide estimated to have chronic HBV infection, health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in HBV-related disease has not been well characterised. Here, we summarise existing data on HBV-related HRQOL and quantify summary utility values by stage of disease.

Methods: Embase, Global Health, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched for articles investigating HBV HRQOL. Meta-analyses for utility scores were pooled by stage of disease and utility instrument; meta-regression was further adjusted for the effect of current health expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product (CHE/GDP), as a proxy of the importance of healthcare perceived by different countries.

Results: Twenty-two articles from 19 studies, comprising 10,311 patients, were included. Of these studies, 74% were performed in the Western Pacific Region, and 47% used the EuroQoL-5D-3L instrument. HRQOL was found to decrease with advancing stages of HBV-related disease. Meta-regression showed the following predicted mean utility scores for the different stages of chronic HBV infection: non-cirrhotic, 0.842; compensated cirrhosis, 0.820 (p = 0.474 compared with non-cirrhotic); decompensated cirrhosis, 0.722 (p = 0.001); and hepatocellular carcinoma, 0.749 (p = 0.008). The type of tool affected HRQOL and populations with a higher CHE/GDP were associated with higher predicted utility values.

Conclusions: Chronic HBV infection impairs the HRQOL of patients, even when there is no evidence of cirrhosis. HRQOL is particularly impaired in the advanced stages of decompensated cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. These results have important implications for global hepatitis elimination efforts and are useful for economic analyses. However, further research is needed, particularly in high-burden, low-income settings where data are lacking.

Authors: Fu, MX; Lambert, G; Cook, A; Ndow, G; Haddadin, Y

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Journal: JHEP Reports
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 4
• Article number: 101312
• Publication date: 2025-01-07
• Acceptance date: 2024-12-17
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhepr.2024.101312
• EISSN: 2589-5559
• Language: English