title: Pediatric allo-SCT for malignant and non-malignant diseases: impact on health-related quality of life outcomes.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY 10595, USA.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Oberg
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Bender
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Basch
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Garvin
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Sands
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Cairo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D064591:Allografts; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012919:Social Behavior; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation; D019172:Transplantation Conditioning; D061349:Unrelated Donors