Quality of life and factors related to perceived satisfaction with quality of life after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation

Abstract

The quality of life after bone marrow transplantation (BMT) was studied in 109 adult allogeneic BMT recipients transplanted on at the Helsinki University Central hospital for a haematological malignancy. Physical, functional, emotional and social well-being was measured on the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Scale (FACT-BMT) and a shortened version of the Profile of Mood States Scale (POMS) and by the MOS social support survey and a Brief Measure of Social Support (SSQ6). The results of the present study replicate those of previous investigations by finding that physical well-being, educational level, age at BMT and social support have an impact on the perceived quality of life of BMT patients. Our results indicate that these factors have a varying impact at different time points during the post-BMT recovery process. During the first three years after BMT, physical well-being proved to be a highly significant (P<0.001) factor for perceived life satisfaction. Moreover, physical well-being showed an average significant improvement after the first post-BMT year. The percentage of the recipients experiencing the highest levels of satisfaction with life increased from 51% during the first year after BMT to 81% for those patients five years post-BMT. One year after BMT, 75.6% of the BMT recipients were able to work, 67.8% of the patients were actively participating in work/school and 7.8% were unemployed.