RESUMO
Despite the improvements in medical treatment over recent decades, hemophilia patients experience deterioration in their quality of life. This study provides a demographic and clinical characterization of hemophilia patients and how this affects their quality of life. This is based on a descriptive cross-sectional study on quality of life of 20patients with hemophilia from the Province of Curicó, Maule Region. The following antecedents were obtained from each patient: age, weight, height, severity of hemophilia, presence of hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, human immunodeficiency virus and Chagas disease. To measure the quality of life the Short Form-36 survey was applied to each one of the patients. The average age was 35+/-16 years old and body mass index was 25+/-4 kg/m2. Regarding the severity level of the disease, in 55 percent of the patient it was found mild. More over, 25 percent of patients had hepatitis C. The most co-morbidity was for articular lesions. Quality of life is affected mainly by lack of sport and also due to the severity level of disease. The current challenge is to provide comprehensive care, both for patients and their families, where the main goal aims at restoring the sense of wellbeing, their right to be perceived as a person with capacity to develop.