title: Health-related quality of life in Korean lymphoma survivors compared with the general population.
abstract: The objective of this study was to evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of lymphoma survivors, to compare it with that of the general population, and to identify its predictors in lymphoma survivors. We enrolled 837 participants (mean age, 54.6 years; mean time since diagnosis, 6.3 years) with a history of Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) (n = 58) or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) (n = 779) who had been treated at any of three Korean hospitals from 1989 through 2010. For controls, we selected 1,000 subjects randomly from a representative Korean population. We administered the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Overall, the HRQOL in both groups of survivors and the general population were comparable, but we observed clinically meaningful worse social functioning in NHL survivors (p < 0.001) and more severe fatigue in HL survivors (p < 0.001) than in the general population. Analysis of covariance revealed no clinically meaningful difference in HRQOL associated with age or sex. Survivors who received peripheral blood stem cell transplants showed clinically meaningful worse role (p = 0.001) and social (p < 0.001) functioning than those who were treated with first-line chemotherapy alone. In multivariate analyses, fatigue, depression, and financial difficulties emerged as the strongest predictors for almost all subscales of functioning and global quality of life. Interventions for alleviating fatigue, depression, and financial difficulties are needed to enhance the HRQOL of Korean lymphoma survivors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Inha University, 253 Yonghyun-dong, Nam-gu, Incheon, 410-742, South Korea, soohyun@inha.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Soo Hyun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Im-Ryung
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: So Hee
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Suyeon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Onam
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ok
authors.forename: Won Seog
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Cheolwon
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.forename: Moon Hee
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D056910:Republic of Korea; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data