Authors: Gabriele Calaminus Wolfgang Dörffel Katja Baust Carmen Teske Marianne Riepenhausen Jürgen Brämswig HansHenning Flechtner Susanne Singer Andreas Hinz Günther Schellong
Publish Date: 2014/01/12
Volume: 22, Issue: 6, Pages: 1519-1529
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to crosssectionally assess quality of life QoL in survivors of childhood Hodgkins disease HD in a cohort treated for HD in the successive German–Austrian therapy studies HD78 HD82 HD85 HD87 HD90 HD95 respectively in accordance with the HDIntervalTreatment recommendation between 1978 and 2002Data from QoL questionnaires were provided by 1202 66 of 1819 invited survivors These included the EORTC QLQC30 and sociodemographic variables Data of a homogenous subsample n = 725 defined by age 21–41 years and event freesurvival no progress relapse or secondary malignancies were compared to an ageadjusted German reference sample n = 659While the global and physical QoL scores were comparable to those of the general population survivors mean scores were more than 10 points lower on the EORTC QLQC30 scales “Emotional” and “Social Functioning” On the symptom scales higher mean scores exceeding 10 points were obtained for the scales “Fatigue” and “Sleep” In general there was a gender effect showing lower functioning and higher symptom levels in women most prominently in the group of young women 21–25 years The results within the group of HD survivors could not be associated with the time since treatment the age of HD survivors at diagnosis or the extent of therapy burden
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