Longitudinal changes in physical and mental health of older adults with chronic hepatitis B infection: Trajectories and predictors

• Main Authors: Chang-Hua Chen, Ming-Shiang Wu, Yu-Wen Yang, Yen-Tze Liu, Yen-Feng Chiu, Chih-Cheng Hsu, Shu-Chun Chuang, Tieh-Chi Chung, Tsung-Lung Tsai, Wen-Hao Huang, Wei-Lin Huang, Chung-Chou Juan, Li-Ming Lien, Chao A. Hsiung, I-Chien Wu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-09-01
• Series: Preventive Medicine Reports
• Subjects: Health-related quality of life; Aging; Geriatric assessment; Group-based trajectory modeling; Healthy Aging Longitudinal Study in Taiwan (HALST)
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335521001224

Despite the increasing health burden of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in aging populations, little is known about the course of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) changes. We aimed to assess individual-level longitudinal HRQoL changes in elderly patients with CHB and to examine their correlates. A prospective 5.1 years-cohort study was conducted in community-dwelling adults aged 55 years with hepatitis B surface antigen-positive. Participants underwent serial measurement of HRQoL using the short-form (12) health survey version 2. Of 503 participants, 82.7% remained in good physical health throughout the study period, whereas 9.1% had declining physical health and 8.2% were in poor physical health. We likewise identified three trajectories of mental health changes (“good mental health” [86.9%], “declining mental health” [6.8%], and “poor mental health” [6.4%]). Three baseline characteristics were independently associated with a lower likelihood of remaining physically or mentally healthy: sarcopenic obesity (odds ratio [OR] with 95% confidence interval [95% CI] of 7.5 [2.8–20.5] for poor physical health, 3.1 [1.1–8.4] for declining physical health, 4.3 [1.4–13.0] for poor mental health), a higher number of metabolic abnormalities (OR [95% CI] of 3.6 [1.6–8.0] for poor physical health) and depressed mood (OR [95% CI] of 21.7 [5.8–81.0] for poor physical health, 5.3 [1.4–19.9] for declining physical health, 83.1 [19.7–350.2] for poor mental health, 13.6 [2.9–64.8] for declining mental health). In conclusion, in a cohort of elderly patients with CHB, we demonstrated the heterogeneity and nonlinearity of HRQoL changes and their associations with variations in specific extrahepatic organs/systems.