Mental Health, Quality of Life, and Stigmatization in Danish Patients with Liver Disease.

The mental health of patients with liver diseases is often overlooked when assessing their overall health and planning care and treatment. The aim of this study was to assess anxiety, depression, hopelessness, quality of life, and the perception of stigmatization in a large cohort of patients with chronic liver disease of different aetiology and severity, as well as to identify predictors associated with mental health disorders. A total of 340 patients completed a survey assessing mental health using the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, and the Major Depression Inventory. Quality of life was measured with the Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire and the European Quality-of-Life visual analogue scale. To assess stigmatization, validated questions from the Danish Nationwide Survey of Patient Experiences were used. Predictors associated with anxiety, hopelessness, and depression were analysed using univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses. Overall, 15% of the patients had moderate or severe anxiety, 3% had moderate or pronounced hopelessness, and 8% had moderate or severe depression. The prevalence of all three was highest in patients with cirrhosis and was associated with a low quality of life. More patients with cirrhosis had perceived stigmatization compared to patients with liver disease without cirrhosis, which affected their self-perception, and more than one-third of the patients refrained from telling others about their liver disease. The results emphasize the need for increased focus on mental health problems and awareness on preventing the discrimination of patients with liver disease.

The impact of oral diseases in cirrhosis on complications and mortality.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The aims of this study were to describe the prevalence of various oral diseases and to examine the association of the oral diseases with complications and mortality of cirrhosis. METHODS: A total of 184 cirrhosis patients were enrolled and were followed up for 2 years. They underwent oral clinical and radiographic examination. At study entry, the associations between oral diseases with nutrition, inflammation, and cirrhosis complication status were examined. Then, the associations of oral diseases with all-cause and cirrhosis-related mortality were examined using Cox regression to adjust for confounding by age, gender, smoking, alcohol use, alcoholic cirrhosis, cirrhosis complications, comorbidity, Child-Pugh, and Model of End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score. RESULTS: At entry, 26% of the patients had gross caries, 46% periapical lesions, 27% oral mucosal lesions, and 68% periodontitis. Having one or more oral diseases was associated with a higher prevalence of cirrhosis complications (46.7 vs 20.5%), higher C-reactive protein (28.5 mg/L vs 10.4 mg/L), and higher nutritional risk score (4 vs 3). Two-thirds of the patients died during follow-up. The patients with more than one oral disease had an increasingly higher all-cause mortality (two diseases: hazard ratio [HR] 1.55, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02-1.98; three and four diseases: HR 1.75, 95% CI 1.05-3.24) and even higher cirrhosis-related mortality (two diseases: HR 1.60, 95% CI 1.01-2.40; three and four diseases: HR 2.04, 95% CI 1.05-8.83) compared to those with no oral disease. CONCLUSION: In cirrhosis, having more than one oral disease was associated with more complications and with higher mortality.

Assessment of Written Patient Information Pertaining to Cirrhosis and Its Complications: A Pilot Study.

BACKGROUND: Written patient information may play an important role in the compliance of the cirrhosis disease, but little is known on the quality and patients' understanding of them. OBJECTIVES: To assess the written patient information leaflet pertaining to cirrhosis and its complications. METHODS: The Baker Able Leaflet Design (BALD) criteria and the Ensuring Quality Information for Patients (EQIP) questionnaire were applied to assess design, layout characteristics, and information quality. Readability was calculated using the Læsbarhedsindex (LIX) and the Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG). A cross-sectional study with a mixed methods design was carried out, using a questionnaire consisting of closed- and open-ended questions. RESULTS: The BALD score was 24 and the EQIP score 70%. The LIX score was 46 and the SMOG score 15.8. Sixteen phrases from the leaflet were selected to explore patients' understanding. Four phrases were understood by 100% of the patients, 6 phrases by more than 50% of the patients, and 6 phrases were understood by less than 50% of the patients. The meaning condensation showed that knowledge and understanding of cirrhosis and its complications were not enhanced by the availability of the leaflet. CONCLUSION: The leaflet had a good design, layout, and information quality but was difficult to read. Patients appeared to relate poorly to the leaflet and demonstrated limited health literacy. These results suggest that an assessment of written patient information ought to be made in an effort to improve readability. Further studies on intervention to improve patients' health literacy are recommended.

Unique subgingival microbiota associated with periodontitis in cirrhosis patients.

Liver cirrhosis is a severe disease with major impact on the overall health of the patient including poor oral health. Lately, there has been increasing focus on oral diseases as cirrhosis-related complications due to the potential impact on systemic health and ultimately mortality. Periodontitis is one of the most common oral diseases in cirrhosis patients. However, no studies have investigated the composition of the subgingival microbiome in patients suffering from periodontitis and liver cirrhosis. We analysed the subgingival microbiome in 21 patients with periodontitis and cirrhosis using long-reads Illumina sequencing. The subgingival microbiota was dominated by bacteria belonging to the Firmicutes phylum and to a lesser extend the Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes phyla. Bacteria usually considered periodontal pathogens, like Porhyromonas ginigivalis, Tannerella forsythia, Treponema denticola, generally showed low abundancy. Comparing the microbiota in our patients with that of periodontitis patients and healthy controls of three other studies revealed that the periodontitis-associated subgingival microbiota in cirrhosis patients is composed of a unique microbiota of bacteria not normally associated with periodontitis. We hypothesise that periodontitis in cirrhosis patients is a consequence of dysbiosis due to a compromised immune system that renders commensal bacteria pathogenic.

Severe periodontitis and higher cirrhosis mortality.

BACKGROUND: Periodontitis and edentulism are prevalent in patients with cirrhosis, but their clinical significance is largely unknown. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this article is to determine the association of severe periodontitis and edentulism with mortality in patients with cirrhosis. METHODS: A total of 184 cirrhosis patients underwent an oral examination. All-cause and cirrhosis-related mortality was recorded. The associations of periodontitis and edentulism with mortality were explored by Kaplan-Meier survival plots and Cox proportional hazards regression adjusted for age, gender, cirrhosis etiology, Child-Pugh score, Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score, smoker status, present alcohol use, comorbidity, and nutritional risk score. RESULTS: The total follow-up time was 74,197 days (203.14 years). At entry, 44% of the patients had severe periodontitis and 18% were edentulous. Forty-four percent of the patients died during follow-up. Severe periodontitis was associated with higher all-cause mortality in the crude analysis (HR 1.56, 95% CI 1.06-2.54), but not in the adjusted analysis (HR 1.45, 95% CI 0.79-2.45). Severe periodontitis was even more strongly associated with higher cirrhosis-related mortality (crude HR 2.19, 95% CI 1.07-4.50 and adjusted HR 2.29, 95% CI 1.04-4.99). No association was found between edentulism and mortality. CONCLUSION: The presence of severe periodontitis predicted a more than double one-year cirrhosis mortality. These findings may motivate intervention trials on the effect of periodontitis treatment in patients with cirrhosis.

Overt Hepatic Encephalopathy Experienced by Individuals With Cirrhosis: A Qualitative Interview Study.

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) markedly reduces an individual's quality of life as measured by established scoring systems. However, the experiences of having HE that can be assumed to cause the loss of quality of life have not yet been examined. This study aimed to explore how individuals with cirrhosis experienced overt HE by means of an in-depth interview with a tailored semistructured interview guide and qualitative analysis. Eight patients with cirrhosis who had clinically recovered from disorientation, somnolence, and stupor due to episodic HE Grade II or III were interviewed. The collected data were analyzed using systematic text condensation, as described by K. . The analysis process identified 4 themes, "multiple losses," "anxiety," "dependence on others," and "social isolation," which described the experiences of HE both during an episode and in recovery. We believe that these findings provide an important contribution to gain a deeper understanding of the widespread loss of quality of life caused by HE. Management of these individuals should involve procedures and attitudes targeted against the described experiences. However, more research is needed about the individuals' experiences of HE to further detail such efforts.