Health-related quality of life in Cuban patients with chronic liver disease: A real-world experience

•Patient reported outcomes (PROs) are important to understanding the impact a disease from the patients’ point of view.•Chronic liver disease (CLD) can carry a high clinical and PRO burden.•PRO data are few among patients with CLD who reside in the Latin America and the Caribbean areas.•Using valid and reliable PRO instruments, we quantified PROs for patients with CLD living in Cuba.•We determined that patients from Cuba with hepatitis C virus and autoimmune liver disease had the worst PRO scores most likely related to more severe underlying liver disease (fibrosis) and/or to extrahepatic manifestations (fatigue, abdominal pain, anxiety, and depression). Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are important for comprehensive assessment of chronic liver disease (CLD). Latin America and the Caribbean have a high burden of CLD, but PROs are lacking. We assessed health-related quality of life (HRQL) in Cuban patients with compensated CLD. A cross sectional study performed of adult patients with a diagnosis of chronic viral infection B and C (HBV, HCV), non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD) and autoimmune liver diseases (AILD) including autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) and overlap syndrome (AIH+PBC). PROs were collected using: Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue (FACIT-F), Work Productivity and Activity-Specific Health Problem (WPAI: SHP), and the Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire (CLDQ)-disease-specific. 543 patients enrolled, n=91 (HBV), n=188 (HCV), n=221 (NAFLD), n=43 (AILD). Of those with AILD, 22 had AIH, 14 PBC, and 7 overlap AIH/PBC. Mean age was 53.5 years, 64.1% female, 69.2% white, and 58.0% employed. Patients with HCV and AILD had more severe liver disease. A significant impairment in PROs was observed in HCV group whereas the AILD patients had more activity impairment. CLDQ-HRQL scores were significantly lower for patients with NAFLD and AILD compared to HBV. Male gender and exercising ≥90min/week predicted better HRQL. The strongest independent predictors of HRQL impairment were fatigue, abdominal pain, anxiety, and depression (p