Quality of life of patients with alcohol-associated cirrhosis

Background: The incidence of alcohol-associated cirrhosis is increasing as a result of the ongoing rise in worldwide alcohol consumption. The current study was undertaken to assess the quality of life (QoL) of individuals with alcohol-associated cirrhosis and explore the association of this QoL measure with various clinicodemographic variables. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on individuals with alcohol-associated cirrhosis who visited the outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital for treatment from October to December 2023. Patients were screened for alcohol use with the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and QoL was measured through the Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire. Clinicodemographic variables were also assessed. Statistics such as frequency, percentage, independent t-test, ANOVA and Bonferroni tests were used for data analysis. Results: Survey results showed that most of the participants (85.6%) had a poor quality of life; the mean score of overall QoL of the study cohort was 3.79±0.95. Analysis at QoL domain level showed that the ‘worry’ domain was the most impacted (mean score 2.88±0.76) followed by ‘Abdominal symptoms’ (mean score 3.32±1.39). QoL scores were found to be statistically significantly associated with AUDIT scores (F=14.328, P<0.001). Post-hoc analysis using the Bonferroni test showed that patients who were alcohol dependent had poorer QoL compared to abstainers or low-risk consumers. Also, patients who were not working because of their disease condition were found to have poor QoL compared to their working counterparts. Conclusions: This study suggests that most patients with alcohol-associated cirrhosis have a poor QoL. Patients who were alcohol dependent had poor QoL scores compared to abstainers or low-risk consumers of alcohol. There is a strong need for motivational enhancement, rehabilitation counselling and alcohol use disorder treatment in liver disease care settings. Healthcare professionals must make every effort to help these patients achieve complete abstinence. Approaches such as telehealth could be used by healthcare professionals for ongoing patient monitoring and motivation to make every effort in helping patients achieve complete abstinence.