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Arquivos de Medicina

On-line version ISSN 2183-2447

Abstract

QUEIROZ, Luísa; SOUSA, Filipa  and  MARQUES, Herlander. Influence of Socio-Demographic and Clinical Factors in Health Related Quality of Life of Hemato-Oncologic Patients. Arq Med [online]. 2010, vol.24, n.3, pp.79-87. ISSN 2183-2447.

Introduction: In the last years have witnessed a growing interest on the topic of Quality of Life (QoL), however there are still few studies in hemato-oncology patients and are no studies on the influence of socio-demographic and clinical data in this type patients. Objectives: Evaluation of QoL of hemato-oncologyc patients and its relationship with socio-demographic and clinical factors. Methods: Application of QoL Questionnaire of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer version 3.0 (EORTC QLQ-C30) and the Social Class of Graffar questionnaire to 74 hemato-oncologyc patients, and collection of socio-demographic and clinical data. Results: Older age was associated with worse physical function (p=0.05). Married patients had less fatigue (p=0.017). Higher than required education was associated with better physical (p=0.02), social (p=0.028) and performance (p=0.044) functions. The upper social class had higher scores in physical function (p=0.004), the middle social class had higher emotional function (p=0.003) and higher financial impact (p=0.004), and the low social class higher pain (p=0.021). It appears that patients with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma diagnostic have better social function (p=0.015) than the other pathologies, and patients with 1 or more recurrences have higher level of anorexia (p=0.012). Patients on chemotherapy have worse performance function (p=0.09), worse social function (p=0.025) and more constipation (p=0.03). Patients with higher number of cytotoxic treatments have higher levels of pain (p=0.023). Lower hemoglobin levels were associated with worse outcomes in functional scales. Discussion/Conclusion: Socio-demographic and clinical factors affect areas of QoL of hemato-oncology patients. These data highlight the need for knowledge and understanding of the impact of oncologic pathology in different aspects of QoL is an important step in developing strategies to improve the welfare of patients.

Keywords : hemato-oncology; quality of life; socio-demographic factors; clinical factors.

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