The effects of joint disease, inhibitors and other complications on health-related quality of life among males with severe haemophilia A in the United States.

INTRODUCTION

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is reduced among persons with haemophilia. Little is known about how HRQoL varies with complications of haemophilia such as inhibitors and joint disease. Estimates of preference-based HRQoL measures are needed to model the cost-effectiveness of prevention strategies.

AIM

We examined the characteristics of a national sample of persons with severe haemophilia A for associations with two preference-based measures of HRQoL.

METHODS

We analysed utility weights converted from EuroQol 5 Dimensions (EQ-5D) and the Short Form 6 Dimensions (SF-6D) scores from 1859 males aged ≥14 years with severe haemophilia A treated at 135 US haemophilia treatment centres in 2005-2011. Bivariate and regression analyses examined age-group-specific associations of HRQoL with inhibitor status, overweight/obesity, number of bleeds, viral infections, indicators of liver and joint disease, and severe bleeding at the time of the first HRQoL measurement.

RESULTS

Overall mean HRQoL utility weight values were 0.71 using the SF-6D and 0.78 using the EQ-5D. All studied patient characteristics except for overweight/obesity were significantly associated with HRQoL in bivariate analyses. In a multivariate analysis, only joint disease was significantly associated with utility weights from both HRQoL measures and across all age groups. After adjustment for joint disease and other variables, the presence of an inhibitor was not significantly associated with HRQoL scores from either of the standardized assessment tools.

CONCLUSION

Clinically significant complications of haemophilia, especially joint disease, are strongly associated with HRQoL and should be accounted for in studies of preference-based health utilities for people with haemophilia.