PAGETS-DISEASE OF BONE AND QUALITY-OF-LIFE

Little is known about how Paget's disease of bone affects quality of l ife, To better understand the relative impact of factors on quality of life, we mailed a brief survey to 2000 people randomly selected from the Paget's Foundation mailing list, The sample was geographically str atified to examine the effects of specialist availability, Nine hundre d and fifty-eight persons responded to the questionnaire (53% response rate after adjustment for death, incorrect addresses, and nondelivera ble mailings), The sample had equal proportions of males and females, with a mean age of 74 years (SD = 9.0), Most (97%) were white, with hi gh levels of education (mean 13 years; SD 3.7) and income (60% earned more than $20,000 annually), They reported pagetic bone in the skull ( 34%), spine (35%), pelvis (49%), and leg (48%), The most frequently me ntioned complications were hearing loss (37%) and bowed limbs (31%), C omorbidity included arthritis (64%), hypertension (32%), and heart pro blems (28%), Nearly half (47%) reported feelings of depression, and 42 % said that their health was fair or poor, Only 21% reported that qual ity of life was very good or excellent, In multiple partial F-test reg ression analyses, variables were divided into four domains (social, ps ychological, care, and biomedical), The psychological domain explained 19% of the variance beyond that explained by all other variables; the social domain explained 3%, the biomedical domain explained 3% and th e care domain explained 1%, The importance of the psychological aspect s of Paget's disease suggests that treatment protocols should include psychological intervention to improve quality of life.