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Central European Annals of Clinical Research

(ISSN: 2668-7305) Open Access Journal
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Central European Annals of Clinical Research (CEACR) is no longer published on JAMS (the publishing platform provided by MDPI) as of 10.07.2021. The articles published until that date are archived at ceacr.archive.jams.pub by courtesy of JAMS.

Cent_Eur_Ann_Clin_Res 2020, 2(1), 59; doi:10.35995/ceacr2010059

Endoped Abstract
Quality of Life in Survivors of Pediatric Hematological Disorders
Luminita Nicoleta Cima 1,2,*, Cristiana Oprea 1, Lavinia Stejereanu 1, Iulia Soare 1, Ioana Lambrescu 1, Carmen Gabriela Barbu 1,2, Cristina Zaharia 1,3, Anca Colita 1,3 and Simona Fica 1
1
Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 020022 Bucharest, Romania; cristiana.oprea54@gmail.com (C.O.); lavinia.stejereanu@gmail.com (L.S.); soare_iulia@yahoo.com (I.S.); iohana2007@yahoo.com (I.L.); carmen_gabriela_barbu@yahoo.co.uk (C.G.B.); cristina_zaharia86@yahoo.com (C.Z.); ancacolita@yahoo.com (A.C.); simonafica55@gmail.com (S.F.)
2
Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders, Elias University Hospital, 011461 Bucharest, Romania
3
Department of Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplantation, Fundeni Hospital, 022328 Bucharest, Romania
*
Corresponding author: luminita.cima@gmail.com
How to cite: Cima, L.N.; Oprea, C.; Stejereanu, L.; Soare, I.; Lambrescu, I.; Barbu, C.G.; Zaharia, C.; Colita, A.; Fica, S. Quality of Life in Survivors of Pediatric Hematological Disorders. Cent. Eur. Ann. Clin. Res. 2020, 2(1), 59; doi:10.35995/ceacr2010059.
Received: 26 October 2020 / Accepted: 14 November 2020 / Published: 17 November 2020
Keywords:
pediatric hematological disease survivors; PedQL; QoL; SF-36

Background

The successful treatment for children with hematological disorders nowadays has greatly increased the survival rates for these young people compared to children diagnosed with hematological malignancies in the past. However, more than half of survivors will exhibit at least one long-term complication that will impair quality of life (QoL). Furthermore, the fatigue, frequent pain and aches these patients experience have a negative impact on QoL.

Objective

The objective of this study was to investigate QoL in our series of children with haematological disorders that were referred for endocrine evaluation to the Department of Endocrinology at Elias University Hospital from the Department of Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit in Fundeni Hospital.

Material and Method

QoL was assessed in 26 patients with hematological disease using two survey instruments, one used for children with various chronic pediatric disorders (PedQL) [1] and one that was validated for cancer survivors (SF-36) [2]. The results were compared to QoL scores from 11 children with endocrine disorders that were evaluated in our clinic and had no hematological disease (control group).

Results

No statistically significant differences were found in the QoL between the two groups of patients in our study. Furthermore, QoL in survivors of childhood onset hematological disease was not influenced by the type of complications they developed in the long-term follow-up, chronic use of glucocorticoids or gender [3,4,5]. One possible explanation could be the small number of patients enrolled in the present study. Moreover, the presence of endocrine disease in both groups may be a confounder having in mind that a significant number of patients with hematological disorders develop endocrinopathies as a consequence of treatment (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy or following conditioning for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation) or the disease itself.

Conclusions

Even if our study failed to demonstrate an impaired QoL in survivors of pediatric hematological disease, the descriptive data provided by this paper present an important degree of novelty for the Romanian medical literature, having the potential to serve as a theoretical basis for future extensive studies with a similar topic.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

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