The level of haemoglobin in anaemic cancer patients correlates positively with quality of life.

The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between haemoglobin level and quality-of-life in anaemic cancer patients. Patients, diagnosed with one of four cancers, were recruited if their haemoglobin level was <12 g dl(-1) (female) or <13 g dl(-1) (male). The condition-specific Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Anaemia and the generic SF-36 were used to assess quality-of-life. Thirty-six per cent of the 179 recruited patients had breast cancer, 28% ovarian cancer, 25% lung cancer, and 11% multiple myeloma. Their mean (s.d.) haemoglobin level was 10.66 (1.04) g dl(-1). Partial correlations controlling for the potentially confounding effects of age, gender, and time since diagnosis found significant positive relationships between haemoglobin and all domains of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Anaemia, and with all but two of the SF-36 domains. On linear regression controlling for the same factors, each unit haemoglobin rise equalled an average 8.19 Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Anaemia, and an average 6.88 Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Fatigue, increase. Haemoglobin accounted for a similar amount of variability (8%) in SF-36 scores. In conclusion, quality-of-life has been found to be significantly positively related to haemoglobin level in anaemic cancer patients. This suggests that normalisation of haemoglobin in cancer patients is likely to increase their quality-of-life. The greater sensitivity of the condition-specific Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Anaemia compared with the generic SF-36 suggests that the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Anaemia can be used alone to assess quality-of life in this patient group.

Quality of life in acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis: results from a German population study.

This study reports on data from a study conducted in the Federal Republic of Germany examining the quality of life (QoL) of patients with chronic bronchitis (CB) and its acute exacerbations (AECB). Data from 320 patients were collected at AECB and subsequently during a stable phase (non-AECB) utilizing the St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP). As expected, the QoL of CB patients was poor, even at non-AECB, with patients reporting lower scores than patients with other chronic conditions. Patients reported significantly poorer QoL at AECB than at non-AECB. After adjusting for the severity of the underlying condition, poorer QoL at AECB was significantly and independently associated with older age, unemployment, increasing BMI, increasing number of prior AECBs, and Anthonisen AECB grade. While younger subjects reported significantly greater deterioration in QoL at AECB, the factors most consistently and independently associated with relative QoL deterioration at AECB were the number of prior AECBs and exposure to air pollution at home. In conclusion, this study highlights the detrimental effect of CB, and in particular AECB, on QoL. The association between QoL and patient reports of previous AECB number and air pollution are consistent with reports from other studies.