Health-related quality of life and health-adjusted life expectancy among patients with chronic non-communicable diseases, in Guangdong province / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To estimate the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE) which were associated with chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in people from Guangdong province of China.@*Methods@#Data on both NCDs prevalence and EuroQol-5 Dimensions-3 Levels measured HRQOL were gathered from the Fifth National Health Survey in Guangdong province, 2013. Logistic regression model and multiple linear regression model were employed to explore the impact of NCDs on HRQOL. Life expectancy (LE) and HALE were used to evaluate the comprehensive impact of chronic diseases on population health.@*Results@#A total of 68 550 inhabitants were included in the analysis. Graded logistic regression showed that the impact of chronic diseases on all dimensions of quality of life was statistically significant after adjusting for social demographic characteristics. The greatest health impact was on the pain/discomfort health dimension [OR=4.48 (95%CI4.20-4.77)], followed by anxiety/depression[OR=3.95 (95%CI 3.62- 4.31)], daily activities [OR=3.69 (95%CI 3.37-4.04)], mobility [OR=3.63 (95%CI 3.34-3.94)]and ability on self-care [OR=3.30 (95%CI 2.98-3.66)]. Losses of LE and HALE caused by NCDs were 12.7 and 14.6 years respectively while the overall expected gain was 3.8 years in HALE, when NCDs were taken away.@*Conclusions@#Our data showed that NCDs had shortened the healthy life span of patients through reducing the HRQOL and also causing heavy disease burden on both patients with NCDs and the communities. Health-care related policies on NCDs need to be developed, for the elderly, in particular.