Analysis of Quality of Life among Hemophiliac Patients Using Scores of Medical Outcomes Study

Hemophilia is a genetic disease and its definitive treatment hasn't been established. Recently, the regular replacement therapy is adopted as the standard therapy in advanced countries. This therapy is to prevent bleeding in joints, and this resulted in the improvement of patients' activities. In order to evaluate present status of QOL in Japanese patients, scores of Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF36) were analyzed.   Data collected by the Research Committee on QOL Study Regarding Coagulation Disorders in Japan were used. Therein, the number of patients older than 16 years old was 724. Patients with other clotting disorders were also included. Descriptive statistics were performed in various groups classified by background factors such as disease type and severity, age, frequency of bleeding, presence of inconvenient joints, and infection with HIV/HCV. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed using eight subscale scores of SF36. Regarding almost all the background factors, worse condition was related to lower scores. Although there was no clear subgroup structure on the biplot of patients, the advantage of younger age could be clearly illustrated on it. Young patients are usually under the control of the regular replacement therapy. In addition, young patients are free from the infection with HIV or HCV. Those might be the causes of the advantage of young age.