Quality of Life Among Patients With Liver Cirrhosis in Egypt: An Analysis of Clinical and Psychological Predictors.

Authors

Reham Ashour, Ramy M Ghazy, Mohamed F Hussein, Mahmoud A Abdel-Fattah, Aliaa Y Mohamed, Hoda A A Shiba, Sally W Elkhadry

Published in

Journal of clinical and experimental hepatology. Volume 17. Issue 1. Pages 103651. Epub Aug 26, 2026.

Abstract

Quality of life (QoL) is significantly impaired by chronic liver disease (CLD) due to socioeconomic, psychological, and physical reasons. In a cohort of Egyptian cirrhosis patients, this study evaluated QoL and its determinants and examined association between QoL, disease severity, and mental health.
In this cross-sectional study at the National Liver Institute (from January to May 2024), 197 cirrhotic patients completed the Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire (CLDQ) and Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21). Child-Pugh and model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) scores were used to assess disease severity. Spearman correlation, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis tests evaluated nonparametric data, and ridge and gamma regressions examined QoL determinants.
The median age was 62.0 (11.0) years; most patients had compensated cirrhosis and mild disease severity. Substantial psychological distress was observed, with (mild to very severe) depression, anxiety, and stress reported in 31.0%, 40.6%, and 21.8%, respectively. Significant negative correlations were found between CLDQ scores and all DASS-21 domains (ρ (rho) = -0.625 to -0.697). Poorer QoL was independently associated with higher DASS subscale scores (all P < 0.001), ascites (ridge -0.627; unit-gamma EXP(B) 0.37, P < 0.001), and moderate-severe Child-Pugh class (ridge -0.300, P = 0.020; EXP(B) 0.50, P < 0.001). Better QoL was associated with health insurance (ridge 0.280, P = 0.027; EXP(B) 1.40, P = 0.040) and a greater number of rooms in the household (ridge 0.179, P = 0.053; EXP(B) 1.53, P < 0.001).
QoL in Egyptian cirrhotic patients is significantly affected by psychological distress, disease severity, and socioeconomic factors, highlighting the need for integrated biopsychosocial management approaches.

PMID:
42860992
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 12 Oct 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.