Health‐related quality of life in children with sickle cell anemia: Impact of blood transfusion therapy |
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| Authors: | Lauren M. Beverung John J. Strouse Monica L. Hulbert Kathleen Neville Robert I. Liem Baba Inusa Beng Fuh Allison King Emily Riehm Meier James Casella Michael R. DeBaun Julie A. Panepinto for the SIT trial investigators |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Medical College of Wisconsin/Children's Research Institute of the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin;2. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland;3. Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri;4. University of Missouri‐Kansas City/Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri;5. Northwestern University‐Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Illinois;6. Guy's and St. Thomas’ Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom;7. East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine, Greenville, North Carolina;8. Children's National Medical Center/The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, District Columbia;9. Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt‐Meharry Center of Excellence in Sickle Cell Disease, Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, Nashville, Tennessee |
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| Abstract: | The completion of the Multicenter Silent Infarct Transfusion Trial demonstrated that children with pre‐existing silent cerebral infarct and sickle cell anemia (SCA) who received regular blood transfusion therapy had a 58% relative risk reduction of infarct recurrence when compared to observation. However, the total benefit of blood transfusion therapy, as assessed by the parents, was not measured against the burden of monthly blood transfusion therapy. In this planned ancillary study, we tested the hypothesis that a patient centered outcome, health‐related quality of life (HRQL), would be greater in participants randomly assigned to the blood transfusion therapy group than the observation group. A total of 89% (175 of 196) of the randomly allocated participants had evaluable entry and exit HRQL evaluations. The increase in Change in Health, measured as the child's health being better, was significantly greater for the transfusion group than the observation group (difference estimate = ?0.54, P ≤ 0.001). This study provides the first evidence that children with SCA who received regular blood transfusion therapy felt better and had better overall HRQL than those who did not receive transfusion therapy. Am. J. Hematol. 90:139–143, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. |
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