Sa1034 Sustained Responders After Antiviral Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C Have a Better Quality of Life and Productivity Independent of Genotype, Age and Opioid Maintenance

Background: Limited data exist regarding liver-related morbidity and health-related quality of life after treatment of chronic HCV infection with interferon (IFN)-based therapies in the real-life setting.We therefore conducted a non-interventional follow-up survey in German gastroenterological practices to compare long-term clinical outcome in patients who achieved sustained virologic response (SVR) or non-SVR after IFN-based HCV treatment.Methods: Patients with chronic hepatitis C who achieved SVR / Non-SVR after IFN-based treatment ≥3 years ago and who are still under routine medical observation were enrolled by 45 gastroenterological centers in Germany.Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) was assessed by the SF-36 questionnaire.Results: From May 2009 until October 2010, N=1355 patients (male 58.0%, mean age 49.2 ±11.5 years) infected with HCV genotype (G)1 (62.4%),G2 (8.1%), G3 (26.3%) and G4/other (3.2%) have been enrolled.Median follow up was 4 years (range 3 to 8 years).42 and 1313 patients were treated with non-pegylated / pegylated IFN in combination with ribavirin.In total 759/1355 patients (56%) achieved SVR after first therapy.Patients with SVR had significantly higher scores on the eight SF-36 domains (each p,0.0001) indicating improvement of HRQOL.In addition, SVR patients were more likely to have a higher productivity as assessed by a higher frequency of employment (41% vs 56%, p,0.0001), a higher number of working hours/week (27 vs 32, p=0.0031) and a lower number of outpatient (9.4 vs 5.3, p ,0.0001) as well as inpatient visits (0.9 vs 0.1, p=0.0013) after HCV treatment.Regarding HRQOL and productivity, similar and significant differences were obtained following stratification by genotype and age ( ≤50 years/.50years).In addition, drug user under opioid maintenance who achieved SVR showed a significant higher HRQOL (each SF-36 domain p,0.0001) together with a higher frequency of employment (20% vs 38%) and a higher number of working hours/week (14 vs 28) when compared with patients under opiod maintenance who did not achieve SVR.Conclusions: SVR is associated with a better quality of life and productivity independent of genotype, age and opioid maintenance.Altogether our results demonstrate the beneficial effect of successful HCV treatment in a large real-world population.