The symptoms and complications related to chronic liver disease (CLD) have been shown to affect patient well-being. Currently there is limited research data on how CLD severity may affect both health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and the development of depressive symptoms in CLD patients. Moreover, the ongoing advances in CLD treatment, and its effect on HRQOL, highlight the need for further studies. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate if the CLD severity may affect the HRQOL and the development of depressive symptoms. A cross-sectional study was conducted. Patients with CLDs were identified at their regular visits to the outpatient clinic of the Sant’Orsola-Malpighi Hospital in Bologna, between September 2016 and July 2017. HRQOL was measured with Short Form 12 (SF-12) and Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) questionnaires; depressive symptoms were measured with Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI). CLD severity was measured using the MELD score and the sample was stratified into five classes according to it. Group comparisons were conducted using the Kruskal–Wallis test. Two hundred and fifty-four patients were included. Mean age was 62.84 years (SD 11.75) and 57.9% were male. Most participants were affected by compensated cirrhosis (140.2%) and chronic hepatitis (40.2%), with a disease duration ≥ 5 years (69.3%). Regarding the MELD score, 67.7% of patients belonged to Class I, 29.9% to Class II, and 2.4% to Class III. There were not patients belonging to the Classes IV and V. No statistically significant differences were found in all SF-12 and NHP domains between the MELD classes, except for CLD impact on sexual life and holidays (p = 0.037 and p = 0.032, respectively). A prevalence rate of 26% of depressive symptoms was reported, no statistically significant differences were found in BDI-II total scores between the three MELD classes. All domains of HRQOL and depression were altered in CLDs patients, nevertheless CLD severity was not confirmed as an affecting factor for HRQOL.

中文翻译：

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慢性肝病门诊患者的健康相关生活质量：一项横断面研究

与慢性肝病 (CLD) 相关的症状和并发症已被证明会影响患者的健康。目前，关于 CLD 严重程度如何影响健康相关生活质量 (HRQOL) 和 CLD 患者抑郁症状发展的研究数据有限。此外，CLD 治疗的持续进展及其对 HRQOL 的影响突出了进一步研究的必要性。因此，本研究的目的是评估 CLD 的严重程度是否会影响 HRQOL 和抑郁症状的发展。进行了横断面研究。2016 年 9 月至 2017 年 7 月期间，在定期访问博洛尼亚 Sant'Orsola-Malpighi 医院门诊时确定了 CLD 患者。 HRQOL 使用简表 12 (SF-12) 和诺丁汉健康概况 (NHP) 进行测量问卷；使用贝克抑郁量表-II (BDI) 测量抑郁症状。使用 MELD 评分测量 CLD 严重程度，并根据它将样本分为五类。使用 Kruskal-Wallis 检验进行组比较。包括 254 名患者。平均年龄为 62.84 岁 (SD 11.75)，57.9% 为男性。大多数参与者患有代偿性肝硬化（140.2%）和慢性肝炎（40.2%），病程≥5年（69.3%）。关于 MELD 评分，67.7% 的患者属于 I 类，29.9% 属于 II 类，2.4% 属于 III 类。不存在属于 IV 类和 V 类的患者。 MELD 类之间的所有 SF-12 和 NHP 域均未发现统计学显着差异，除了 CLD 对性生活和假期的影响（p = 0.037 和 p = 0.032，分别）。据报道，抑郁症状的患病率为 26%，三个 MELD 等级之间的 BDI-II 总分没有发现统计学上的显着差异。在 CLD 患者中，HRQOL 和抑郁的所有领域都发生了改变，但 CLD 严重程度并未被确认为 HRQOL 的影响因素。