Aim: Chronic venous disease (CVD) is a well-defined and known disorder which impact on related-health quality of life (QoL). However, individuals factors which determinate quality of life on CVD are not well defined. The purposes of this study were to describe the QoL in patients with CVD and examine socio-demographical and clinical factors which influence QoL METHODS: One thousand five hundred sixty patients with CVD were evaluated. We calculated for each patient two disease-specific severity scores: The "C" grade (clinical) of the CEAP classification and the Venous Clinical Severity Score (VCSS). Additionally, two QoL questionnaires were recorded: Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) and Chronic Lower Limb Venous Insufficiency Questionnaire (CIVIQ-20). Two multivariate logistic regression analyses (SF-12 and CIVIQ-20 model) were conducted to determine whether demographic and clinical variables were independently associated with QoL.
Results: Both QoL questionnaires indicated that the QoL decreased significantly (P<0.05) as the C grade of CEAP increased. Each increase of 0.10 in VCSS score represented 2% worsening in QoL as measured by CIVIQ-20. Three factors were strongly associated with poor QoL on SF-12: increasing age, prior superficial venous thrombosis (SVT) or prior deep venous thrombosis. In the specific disease CIVIQ-20 questionnaire three factors (higher age, prior SVT and higher weight) were strongly associated with decrease QoL.
Conclusion: Increasing disease severity by VCSS is associated with reductions in QoL. Subgroup analysis indicates that there are several significant individual determinants of worsening QoL.