NYMC Faculty Publications

Pediatric Allo-SCT for Malignant and Non-Malignant Diseases: Impact on Health-Related Quality of Life Outcomes

Author Type(s)

Faculty

DOI

10.1038/bmt.2012.217

Journal Title

Bone Marrow Transplantation

First Page

787

Last Page

793

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2013

Department

Pediatrics

Keywords

Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Allografts, Child, Child, Preschool, Chronic Disease, Emotions, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Graft vs Host Disease, Humans, Male, Neoplasms, Quality of Life, Social Behavior, Stem Cell Transplantation, Transplantation Conditioning, Unrelated Donors

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences

Abstract

The objective of this study was prospectively to investigate the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of 80 pediatric recipients of allo-SCT for malignant and non-malignant diseases. The PedsQL 4.0 was used to assess self-reported physical, emotional and social functioning of children 5 years old once, pre-allo-SCT and on days +100, +180, +365 and +730. Emotional and social functioning was stable pre-to-post-allo-SCT and comparable to the normative sample (P>0.05), and physical functioning was 17 points lower pre-allo-SCT (P0.01) with improved scores equivalent to the norms by day +730. Lower physical scores were reflected by 50-54% of children reporting difficulties with movement, strength, pain and fatigue. At baseline, children ages 5-7 reported lower social functioning (P< 0.05) and patients with non-malignant disease reported better physical functioning (P< 0.05). Emotional functioning in ages 8-12 improved over time (P< 0.05). More than 50% of the participants were minority and their HRQOL was similar to non-minority participants. Physical functioning significantly improved for recipients of reduced-toxicity conditioning (P0.01), significantly worsened for patients with chronic GVHD (cGVHD; P< 0.05), and significantly decreased in recipients of matched-unrelated donor transplant who developed cGVHD (P< 0.05). Multidisciplinary efforts are necessary to identify and support pediatric patients' physical needs to improve functional outcomes.

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