[Health related quality of life on severe hand, foot and mouth disease patients].

Objective

To evaluate the health related quality of life (HRQoL) for severe hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) patients with different complications.

Methods

A national telephone interview under the EQ-5D proxy2 questionnaire (EQ-SD and EQ-VAS), was conducted to obtain the HRQoL of lab-confirmed severe HFMD patients, aged between six months and five-year-olds from the national communicable disease surveillance system from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2013.

Results

A total of 685 severe HFMD cases were included in the study. A total of 456 (66.6%) of them were males with 75.8% of them younger than three years old. A total of 337 (49.2%) and 407 (59.4%) of the participants reported that they had problems in mobility or daily activities. A total of 569 (83.1%) and 616 (89.9%) of the cases reported having problems in pain/discomfort or anxiety/depression. The average EQ-5D and EQ-VAS scores were 0.58±0.23 and 53.6±25.7, both were positively associated with the duration of illness. Mean quality adjusted life years loss during the HFMD episode for the severe patients was (15.45±13.75) years/1 000 persons. The QALY losses for severe patients with each of below complication were: respiratory diseases (11.17±8.83) years/1 000 persons, aseptic meningitis (13.56±11.99) years/1 000 persons, encephalitis/brainstem encephalitis/acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) (15.31±12.63) years/1 000 persons, Myocarditis (17.28±18.16) years/1 000 persons, pulmonary hemorrhage/pulmonary edema (17.34±14.98) years/1 000 persons, cardiopulmonary failure (25.47±20.53) years/1 000 persons. Among patients with lab confirmed Entero virus A71 (EV71) (16.51±14.48) years/1 000 persons, the QALY loss was seen higher than Coxsackie virus A16 (Cox A16) (13.02±11.45) years/1 000 persons and other Enter virus (14.74±14.22) years/1 000 persons (Z=11.83, P=0.003).

Conclusion

The HRQoL loss for severe HFMD patients substantially increased under complications exacerbation and related to the duration of illness.