The Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, Wallace Wurth Building, High Street, Kensington, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
St Vincent's Clinical School, UNSW Medicine, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Qual Life Res. 2023 Nov;32(11):3195-3207. doi: 10.1007/s11136-023-03465-3. Epub 2023 Jun 23.
There is limited research on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among people who inject drugs (PWID). We aimed to evaluate factors associated with HRQoL among a cohort of PWID in Australia.
Participants were enrolled in an observational cohort study (the LiveRLife Study) between 2014 and 2018 at 15 sites in Australia. They provided fingerstick whole-blood samples for point-of-care HCV RNA testing and underwent transient elastography to assess liver disease. Participants completed the EQ-5D-3L survey at enrolment. Regression models were used to assess the impact of clinical and socioeconomic characteristics on the EQ-5D-3L scores.
Among 751 participants (median age, 43 years; 67% male), 63% reported injection drug use in the past month, 43% had current HCV infection, and 68% had no/mild liver fibrosis (F0/F1). The mean EQ-5D-3L and EQ-VAS scores were 0.67 and 62, respectively, for the overall study population. There was no significant difference in the EQ-5D-3L scores among people with and without recent injecting drug use (mean: 0.66 vs. 0.68, median: 0.73 vs. 0.78, P = 0.405), and among people receiving and not receiving opioid agonist therapy (mean: 0.66 vs. 0.68, median: 0.73 vs. 0.76, P = 0.215). Participants who were employed were found to have the highest mean EQ-5D-3L (0.83) and EQ-VAS scores (77). The presence of current HCV infection, liver fibrosis stage, and high-risk alcohol consumption had little impact on HRQoL.
The study findings provide important HRQoL data for economic evaluations, useful for guiding the allocation of resources for HCV elimination strategies and interventions among PWID.
在注射吸毒者（PWID）中，有关健康相关生活质量（HRQoL）的研究有限。本研究旨在评估澳大利亚一组 PWID 中与 HRQoL 相关的因素。
参与者于 2014 年至 2018 年期间在澳大利亚的 15 个地点参加了一项观察性队列研究（LiveRLife 研究）。他们提供指尖全血样本进行即时 HCV RNA 检测，并进行瞬时弹性成像以评估肝脏疾病。参与者在入组时完成了 EQ-5D-3L 调查。回归模型用于评估临床和社会经济特征对 EQ-5D-3L 评分的影响。
在 751 名参与者中（中位年龄 43 岁；67%为男性），63%报告过去一个月有注射吸毒行为，43%有现患 HCV 感染，68%无/轻度肝纤维化（F0/F1）。整个研究人群的 EQ-5D-3L 和 EQ-VAS 平均得分分别为 0.67 和 62。近期有注射吸毒行为和无注射吸毒行为的人群的 EQ-5D-3L 评分无显著差异（平均：0.66 与 0.68，中位数：0.73 与 0.78，P=0.405），接受和不接受阿片类激动剂治疗的人群的 EQ-5D-3L 评分也无显著差异（平均：0.66 与 0.68，中位数：0.73 与 0.76，P=0.215）。有工作的参与者的 EQ-5D-3L 平均得分最高（0.83）和 EQ-VAS 评分（77）。现患 HCV 感染、纤维化分期和高风险饮酒对 HRQoL 的影响较小。
研究结果为经济评估提供了重要的 HRQoL 数据，有助于指导为 PWID 制定 HCV 消除策略和干预措施分配资源。
