OBJECTIVES : The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of hypertension and associated co-morbidities on the HRQoL in HK using EQ-5D-5L.

METHODS : The data were collected from a population-based survey on patient experience by using the specialist-outpatient clinic services in HK. 4,528 patients completed the questionnaire and reported living with hypertension. EQ-5D-5L HK version was used for evaluating the people’s HRQoL. Differences of EQ-5D utility between socio-demographic subgroups were assessed using a bootstrap version of the heteroscedastic one-way ANOVA for trimmed means. Ordinal least square, Tobit and two-part regression model were used separately to estimate the effect of hypertension and associated seven co-morbidities on HRQoL adjusted by socio-demographic characteristics.

RESULTS : More respondents were female (53.9%), aged ≥65 years old (60.1%), and with no or primary educational attainment (52.3%). A total of 1,466 respondents (32.4%) reported to co-suffer from diabetes, followed with heart disease (20.8%), vision problem (1.7%), and cancer (1.5%). In the OLS model, utility decreased most when patients reported having physical disability associated with hypertension (beta= -0.395, SE=0.047), and 0.128, 0.064, 0.05, and 0.048 for mental problem, cancer, vision problem, and heart problem. In the Tobit model, the utility reduced most for co-morbidity of physical disability, and then mental problem, cancer, vision problem, heart problem and diabetes. For first part of two-part model, respondents co-living with mental problem were 10% less likely to report a full health. For the second part of two-part model, the respondents with physical disability had 0.294 lower in utility.

CONCLUSIONS : This study applied the EQ-5D-5L HK version in a large sample of hypertensive patients in HK, China. Compared with normal population, patients reported with hypertension presented lower HRQoL and the effect varied with the patients’ socio-demographic characteristics and co-morbidities.