Health Related Quality of Life for Patients with Liver Transplantation

Abstract

Background: Liver transplantation is the standard of care for patients with end-stage liver disease, with patient 1 and 5 year survival rates for more than 90% and 70% of patients respectively. As post-transplant survival improve, health-related quality of life  is an important independent measure to contextualize transplant outcomes. Aim: This study aimed to assess health related quality of life for patients with liver transplantation. Design: Descriptive exploratory design was utilized. Setting: The study was conducted at liver transplant department at National Hepatology and Tropical Medicine Research Institute in Cairo. Sample: A purposive sample of (50) patients from both sex was included in the study. Tools: data were collected through using two tool, Tool I) patient's structured interview questionnaire that included two parts, part I included demographic characteristics of the patient and part II included patient's past medical history. Tool (II) short form- 36, to assess patients health related quality of life. Results: About  half of the studied patients were in age group 51-70 years old with mean age 50.14 ± 13.92 and the majority of them were males. Also, less than three quarter of the studied patients were married and about one third of them had university education. Additionally, half of them were from rural area. About two thirds of the studied patients were cared at home by wife/ husband and son/ daughter. Also, there was a statistically significant   relationship between patients age, residence, marital status and occupation post liver transplantation and their total level quality of life at P-value= 0.021, 0.036, 0.048 and 0.029 respectively. Conclusion: About half of the studied patients had average level of quality of life and more than one third of them had poor quality of life. While, less than one fifth of them had good quality of life post liver transplantation. Recommendation: Conduct a multi-central, longitudinal, and comprehensive study to measure health related quality of life of patients from pre-transplantation to post-transplantation stages and to achieve more generalization of the results.