title: Which questionnaires should we use to evaluate quality of life in patients with chronic graft-vs-host disease?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the ability of two standard quality of life (QOL) questionnaires - The Short Form (36-item) Health Survey (SF-36) and The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30 (EORTC QLQ C30) to evaluate QOL in patients with chronic graft-vs-host disease (cGVHD) graded according to National Institutes of Health (NIH) consensus criteria.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this cross-sectional study, QOL was assessed in patients who underwent allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) at the University Hospital Centre Zagreb and were alive and in complete remission for more than one year after allo-SCT.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study included 58 patients, 38 patients with cGVHD and 20 controls, patients without cGVHD. Patients with cGVHD scored according to the NIH criteria had significantly lower scores of global health status and lower QOL on all SF-36 subscales and most of QLQ C30 functional subscales (P<0.050 for all comparisons). Furthermore, patients with active cGVHD had significantly lower QOL scores than patients with inactive cGVHD, and this difference was most evident in physical functioning subscale of SF-36 (P=0.0007) and social functioning subscale of QLQ C30 (P=0.009).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  cGVHD scored according to the NIH criteria is correlated with patient-reported QOL, particularly in the physical domains as detected by SF-36. QLQ C30 questionnaire adds more information on social functioning and should be used as a valuable tool in the evaluation of social domains in cGVHD patients.
authors.affiliation: Zinaida Perić, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia, zina_peric@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Zinaida
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Perić
authors.forename: Lana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Desnica
authors.forename: Nadira
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Duraković
authors.forename: Alen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ostojić
authors.forename: Dražen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pulanić
authors.forename: Ranka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Serventi-Seiwerth
authors.forename: Ema
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Prenc
authors.forename: Grzegorz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Basak
authors.forename: Radovan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vrhovac
authors.forename: Steven Z
authors.initials: SZ
authors.lastname: Pavletic
authors.forename: Damir
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nemet
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D006304:Health Status; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult