Health-related Quality of Life and Its Influencing Factors for Middle and Old Aged Patients with Hypertension: Evidence from Rural Shandong Province, China

Abstract Abstract: Purpose: Hypertension is a growing public health problem in China; however, little is known about health-related quality of life (HRQoL) especially health state utility (HSU) of patients with hypertension in rural China. This study aimed to examine the HSU as measured by SF-6D and to investigate its associated factors among middle and old aged patients with hypertension in rural China. Methods: Data were collected from twelve villages in Shandong Province in 2016. SF-36 was administrated to measure HRQoL of middle and old aged patients with hypertension and was converted to the SF-6D values using Hong Kong’s tariff. Descriptive analyses, including demographic characteristics, socio-economic status, and utility, were stratified by hypertension classification. Multiple linear regression models were applied to assess the associated factors of HSU. Results: A total of 933 old adults participated in the study. The mean age of the respondents was 69.1 (SD=8.2) years old and about 40% were male. Almost one-third of respondents were classified as normotensive and around 45% were in stage I, 26.4% were above the stage II. The mean score of SF-6D utility score was 0.743 (SD: 0.14, range: 0.32-1.00, median: 0.756, Interquartile range:0.634-0.859). The influencing factors of utility for hypertension patients in China included gender, age, marital status, education, household income, health expenditure, and comorbid diseases. Conclusion: Our study presented the utility values of SF-6D among patients with hypertension in a large, representative sample in rural areas, China. We found gender, occupation, health expenditure, household income, comorbidities, and hypertension stage were associated with higher/lower health utilities. SF-6D is capable to measure the quality of life of hypertensive patients in a community sample in China. Keywords: Health utility; Hypertension; Preference-based measure Quality of life; SF-6D