Psychological impact of chronic hepatitis C: Comparison with other stressful life events and chronic diseases

Table 2 Factors associated with diagnosis-related stress in univariate analysis in the 185 patients

	Diagnosis-related stress(mean VAS scores)	P
Age (yrs)
< 46	73 ± 25
≥ 46	72 ± 24	NS
Gender
Male	72 ± 24
Female	79 ± 22	< 0.003
Educational level
< High school	75 ± 24
≥ High school	69 ± 25	0.07
Marital status
Single/divorced	73 ± 25
In couple	72 ± 24	NS
Routes of transmission for HCV
Blood transfusion	80 ± 20
Intravenous drug use	65 ± 27
Others	68 ± 26	< 0.002
Antiviral therapy
Ongoing	69 ± 25
Untreated	74 ± 25	NS
Histological severity of liver disease (n = 169)
F0-F1-F2 (n = 122)	74 ± 23
F3-F4 (n = 47)	70 ± 29	NS
Time since diagnosis (yrs)
< 2	71 ± 26
≥ 2	73 ± 24	NS
Perceived disease severity (VAS)
< 75	59 ± 23
≥ 75	83 ± 21	< 0.001
Trait anxiety (STAI)
< 45	64 ± 27
≥ 45	81 ± 19	< 0.001

For continuous variables (age, time since diagnosis, perceived disease severity and trait anxiety) patients were divided into two groups according to the median value.