Assessing health-related quality-of-life in patients with severe haemophilia A and B

Abstract

Severe haemophilia is a chronically disabling and painful condition but treatment may modify progression of the disease and consequently health-related quality-of-life (HR-QoL). In order to assess HR-QoL in patients with severe haemophilia A and B, 99 patients received MOS Short Form 36 (SF-36) and EuroQol (EQ-5D) questionnaires. The relationships between responses from both questionnaires, HIV status, age, orthopaedic history and the number of bleeds patients had experienced in the previous year were examined. Scores from both questionnaires were also compared to appropriate UK normative data. The final analysis was based on 70 and 71 SF-36 and Euroqol questionnaires, respectively. Age aside, none of the clinical variables were found to be statistically significant predictors of health-related quality-of-life (HR-QoL). However, results from both questionnaires clearly showed that compared to the general population these patients with severe haemophilia are experiencing significantly lower levels of HR-QoL irrespective of differences in age.