title: Quality of life among Iranian patients with beta-thalassemia major using the SF-36 questionnaire.
abstract: CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE Patients with beta-thalassemia major (β-TM) experience physical, psychological and social problems that lead to decreased quality of life (QoL). The aim here was to measure health-related QoL and its determinants among patients with β-TM, using the Short Form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire. DESIGN AND SETTING Cross-sectional study at the Hematology Research Center of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, in southern Iran. METHODS One hundred and one patients with β-TM were randomly selected. After the participants' demographics and disease characteristics had been recorded, they were asked to fill out the SF-36 questionnaire. The correlations of clinical and demographic factors with the QoL score were evaluated. RESULTS There were 44 men and 57 women of mean age 19.52 ± 4.3 years (range 12-38). On two scales, pain (P = 0.041) and emotional role (P = 0.009), the women showed significantly lower scores than the men. Lower income, poor compliance with iron-chelating therapy and presence of comorbidities were significantly correlated with lower SF-36 scores. These factors were also found to be determinants of worse SF-36 scores in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS We showed that the presence of disease complications, poor compliance with iron-chelating therapy and poor economic status were predictors of worse QoL among patients with β-TM. Prevention and proper management of disease-related complications, increased knowledge among patients regarding the importance of managing comorbidities and greater compliance with iron-chelating therapy, along with psychosocial and financial support, could help these patients to cope better with this chronic disease state.
authors.affiliation: Hematology Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
authors.forename: Sezaneh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Haghpanah
authors.forename: Shiva
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nasirabadi
authors.forename: Fariborz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ghaffarpasand
authors.forename: Rahmatollah
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Karami
authors.forename: Mojtaba
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mahmoodi
authors.forename: Shirin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Parand
authors.forename: Mehran
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karimi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D007502:Iron Chelating Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult; D017086:beta-Thalassemia / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology; D016903:Drug Monitoring
chemical_list: D007502:Iron Chelating Agents
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