A life that's worth living - measuring health-related quality of life among people treated for tuberculosis in Viet Nam: a longitudinal EQ-5D-5L survey.

Background: In many settings, Tuberculosis (TB) represents a catastrophic life event that substantially impairs a person's Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL). We aimed to measure HRQoL among people with TB in Viet Nam at initiation and throughout treatment.

Methods: This study took place in four provinces from Oct-2020 to Sep-2022. Persons initiated on TB treatment were consecutively recruited across three pathways to access care: passive case finding (NTP); active case finding (ACF); and private sector engagement (PPM). We conducted the EuroQol-5-Dimension-5-Level (EQ-5D-5L) survey during the intensive, continuation, and post-treatment phase. We described participant characteristics, assessed the survey's psychometric properties, and calculated utility indexes using a Vietnamese value set. We reported these alongside visual analog scale (EQ-VAS) scores and EQ-5D-5L dimensions by treatment stage, care pathway and other participant characteristics. Mixed-effect Tobit models were fitted to identify relevant associations with HRQoL, which we compared to general population benchmarks.

Results: We recruited 585 participants (23.6% female) with a median age of 51 years. EQ-5D-5L dimensions at baseline showed that 53.8% experienced pain/discomfort and 35.0% felt anxiety/depression, while 33.8%, 30.4%, and 9.6% reported problems with carrying out usual activities, mobility, and self-care, respectively. The mean utility index was 0.83 (95% confidence interval: [0.82, 0.85]) and mean EQ-VAS was 67.1 (95%CI: [65.6, 68.6]). Post-treatment, HRQoL improved significantly on all dimensions and composite measures. While utility indexes were at parity with general population benchmarks (0.90; 95%CI: [0.89, 0.92] vs. 0.91), self-reported EQ-VAS scores remained significantly lower (79.4; 95%CI: [78.1, 80.6] vs. 87.4). HRQoL was higher at baseline in the ACF versus the NTP cohorts on utility index (0.87 vs. 0.82; p = 0.003) and EQ-VAS score (70.4 vs. 65.5; p = 0.015). The EQ-5D-5L tool demonstrated moderate to high validity on Cronbach's alpha (0.75 ≤ α ≤ 0.84) and Spearman's rho (0.4679 ≤ ρ₀ ≤ 0.5651) across treatment stages and various known groups.

Conclusion: TB significantly impairs HRQoL among affected Vietnamese people. While treatment partially remedies these impairments, they may persist post-TB. Hence, physical, psychological and social rehabilitation during and after therapy should receive more attention. We found evidence that ACF may mitigate TB-related declines in HRQoL, but tailored studies are needed to substantiate these findings.