- Bunschoten Hepatitis C and health - related quality of life among patients with hemophilia

Hemophilia is an X-linked bleeding disorder caused by a partial or complete lack of clotting factor activity. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of these patients is lower than in the general population and is mainly dependent on severity of hemophilia, age, orthopedic status and comorbidities. Hepatitis C is a major comorbid condition among patients with hemophilia who received non-virus-inactivated or insufficiently inactivated large-pool clotting factor concentrates or cryoprecipitate. Hepatitis C infection itself has also been shown to be associated with a decrease in HRQoL, which may be explained by chronic liver disease and associated factors present in many infected individuals, such as intravenous drug use and low socioeconomic status. Reports about the effect of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection on HRQoL in patients with hemophilia are scarce. However, this information may be important with regard to the policy on initiating antiviral therapy. The majority of reports on HRQoL among patients with hepatitis C have focused on patients selected for enrollment into treatment trials, from which patients with hemophilia are usually excluded. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of HCV infection on HRQoL among patients with hemophilia.