To investigate the quality of life (QOL) of liver transplant recipients and explore its influencing factors.

115 liver transplant recipients who got reexamination in the Department of Organ Transplantation, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in December 2017 were included into the study, and the general data questionnaire and brief health survey (SF-36) scale were used. The independent sample t-test was used to compare the scores of each dimension of SF-36 scale between the liver transplantation group and the normal control group, and the one-way ANOVA and LSD method was used to compare the effect of demographic sociological and clinical data on the QOL. The counting data were expressed by frequency and constituent ratio. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

A total of 115 questionnaires were sent out and 108 valid questionnaires were collected, with an effective recovery rate of 93.9%. The average total scores of QOL of 108 liver transplant recipients was (592±138) scores. the average scores of physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) were (286±71) scores and (306±75) scores, respectively. The scores of physical function dimension was the highest [(86±14) scores], and the scores of physical role function dimension was the lowest [(55±42) scores]. The scores of physiological function, physical role function, physical pain, social function and emotional function of liver transplant recipients were significantly lower than those of the normal control group (t=3.78, 6.05, 5.54, 1.61 and 0.36, P all<0.01). The effect of demographic sociological and clinical data on QOL of liver transplant recipients were analyzed (the PCS and MCS of SF- 36 scale were used as dependent variables). The results showed that gender, educational level, monthly income, postoperative survival time and postoperative reemployment were the influencing factors of QOL after liver transplantation (P all<0.05).

The QOL of liver transplant recipients still needs to be improved. Medical staff should pay more attention to female, low educational level, low monthly income, short lived (less than 1 year) and no re-employment liver transplant recipients, so as to improve their QOL.