Quality of Life During Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C (P05278/MK-4031-336)

SF-36 is a generic 36-item questionnaire measuring health-related quality of life (HRQL) covering 2 summary measures: physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS). The SF-36 consists of 8 subscales. The PCS is represented by 4 subscales: physical function, role limitations due to physical problems, pain, and general health perception. The MCS is represented by 4 subscales: vitality, social function, role limitations due to emotional problems, and mental health. Participants self-report on items in a subscale that have between 2-6 choices per item using Likert-type responses (e.g. none of the time, some of the time, etc.). Summations of item scores of the same subscale give the subscale scores, which are transformed into a range from 0 to 100; zero= worst HRQL, 100=best HRQL. PCS and MCS scores are constructed as a T-score with a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10 and no minimum or maximum score; higher scores indicate better health status.

The CLDQ-HCV is a disease-specific questionnaire measuring HRQL that contains 29 items divided into 4 domains: emotional function (9 items), worry (6 items), systemic symptoms (8 items) and activity/energy (6 items). All items refer to the previous 2 weeks and are rated on a 7 point Likert scale, with 1 corresponding to the maximum frequency ("all of the time") and 7 to the minimum ("none of the time"). Domain scores are the means of the items contained. A summary score is calculated by the mean of all domain scores (CLDQ-HCV Global). Higher scores indicate better health-related quality of life.

SF-36 is a generic 36-item questionnaire measuring health-related quality of life (HRQL) covering 2 summary measures: physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS). The SF-36 consists of 8 subscales. The PCS is represented by 4 subscales: physical function, role limitations due to physical problems, pain, and general health perception. The MCS is represented by 4 subscales: vitality, social function, role limitations due to emotional problems, and mental health. Participants self-report on items in a subscale that have between 2-6 choices per item using Likert-type responses (e.g. none of the time, some of the time, etc.). Summations of item scores of the same subscale give the subscale scores, which are transformed into a range from 0 to 100; zero= worst HRQL, 100=best HRQL. PCS and MCS scores are constructed as a T-score with a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10 and no minimum or maximum score; higher scores indicate better health status.

The CLDQ-HCV is a disease-specific questionnaire measuring quality of life that contains 29 items divided into 4 domains: emotional function (9 items), worry (6 items), systemic symptoms (8 items) and activity/energy (6 items). All items refer to the previous 2 weeks and are rated on a 7 point Likert scale, with 1 corresponding to the maximum frequency ("all of the time") and 7 to the minimum ("none of the time"). Domain scores are the means of the items contained. A summary score is calculated by the mean of all domain scores (CLDQ-HCV Global). Higher scores indicate better health-related quality of life.

SF-36 is a 36-item questionnaire measuring HRQL covering 2 summary measures, PCS and MCS. The SF-36 consists of 8 subscales. PCS is represented by physical function, role limitations-physical, pain, and general health perception. MCS is represented by vitality, social function, role limitations-emotional, and mental health. Subscale items are summed and scaled from 0-100 to give subscale scores; 0= worst HRQL, 100=best HRQL. PCS and MCS summary scores are constructed as T-scores (mean =50, standard deviation=10) with no minimum or maximum score; higher scores indicate better health status. MCID was defined as the difference in questionnaire scores between baseline and final visits for those participants who had stated that their health status had changed at the end of the study (improved in one category of health status as perceived by themselves). The MCID was calculated for each subscale of the SF-36 and for PCS and MCS.

The CLDQ-HCV is a disease-specific questionnaire measuring HRQL that contains 29 items divided into 4 domains: emotional function (9 items), worry (6 items), systemic symptoms (8 items) and activity/energy (6 items). All items refer to the previous 2 weeks and are rated on a 7 point Likert scale, with 1 corresponding to the maximum frequency ("all of the time") and 7 to the minimum ("none of the time"). Domain scores are the means of the items contained. A summary score is calculated by the mean of all domain scores (CLDQ-HCV Global). Higher scores indicate better health-related quality of life. MCID was defined as the difference in questionnaire scores between baseline and final visits for those participants who had stated that their health status had changed at the end of the study (improved in one category of health status perceived by themselves). The MCID was calculated for each domain of the CLDQ-HCV and for the CLDQ-HCV summary score.

Compliance was calculated as the amount of dispensed medication minus the amount of medication returned by participants divided by amount of dispensed medication.