Progress in researches on disease burden and health service utilization of beta-thalassemia patients in China

Thalassemia is an inherited hemoglobin disorder clinically categorized into alpha and beta thalassemia. Severe beta-thalassemia patients commonly experience anemia during infancy and progressively deteriorate, necessitating long-term blood transfusion to sustain life. The reliance on the blood transfusion significantly diminishes the quality of life of the patients, thereby imposing substantial economic and psychological hardships not only on the disease sufferers but also on the patients' families and the society as a whole. Thalassemia is considered as one of the global public health concerns by World Health Organization. In the paper, we summarize researches on epidemiological and disease burden of β-thalassemia and health service utilization of β-thalassemia patients in China.