OBJECTIVES: The quality of life study was undertaken to elicit utilities on chronic hepatitis B (CHB) related health states in Korean CHB patients. METHODS: We conducted an observational study on 4019 CHB patients (age 44 +/- 12 yr; men 72%; CHB: 79%, CC: 13%, DCC: 4%, HCC: 4%) from 219 hospitals throughout the nation. The Korean version of EQ5D was used to measure the quality of life in a self-administered manner. Based on the valuation study of EQ5D for the Korean population, the utility index for each diagnosis and severity of disease (Child Pugh classification) were calculated. RESULTS: The mean EQ5D utilities by diagnosis were 0.85 for chronic hepatitis B (CHB), 0.80 for compensated cirrhosis (CC), 0.67 for decompensated cirrhosis (DCC) and 0.77 for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and those by severity of disease were 0.84 for Child A, 0.71 for Child B and 0.63 for Child C. We found that the advanced liver disease (DCC & HCC) showed lower utility value than CHB & CC and in the advanced liver disease, DCC had a stronger impact on health utilities than HCC. In addition, as severity of disease increased, so did impairment of HRQOL. These findings are consistent with the previous study results from other countries. CONCLUSIONS: Disease specific utility score for CHB patients in Korea was generated through this nation-wide survey. The overall utility score for CHB patients was lower than normal populations and a greater decrement was observed in more severe disease states.