Reduced health-related quality of life among Hodgkin's disease survivors: A comparative study with general population norms

Background. Late complications after curative treatment of Hodgkin's diseas e are of special relevance because most of the cured are young adults. The aims of the present study were: (1) to compare health-related quality of li fe (HRQOL) in Hodgkin's disease (HD) survivors with normative data from the general Norwegian population and (2) to examine the relations between dise ase/treatment characteristics and HRQOL in the HD survivors. Patients and methods: 459 HD survivors aged 19-74 years (mean 44.0, SD 11.8 ) treated at the Norwegian Radium Hospital 1971-1991 were approached in 199 4 and compared to norms from 2214 subjects approached in 1996. The norms ar e representative of the general Norwegian population. HRQOL was assessed by the Short Form 36 (SF-36), which measures HRQOL in eight separate scales ( 0 = worst health state, 100 = best health state). Results. The HD survivors had lower scores than the normal controls on all scales after adjustment for age, gender and educational levels. Statistical ly significant differences (P < 0.01) were found in general health (10.4), physical functioning (6.1), role limitations (physical, 9.3), social functi oning (3.6) and in vitality (4.7). Patients with disease stage IB-IIB had t he lowest scores on all scales. The differences in relation to stage/substa ge reached statistical significance (P < 0.01) in physical functioning and in role limitations (physical). Time since diagnosis, types of primary trea tment or having relapsed were not associated with statistically significant differences in HRQOL. Conclusion: Long-term HD survivors have poorer HRQOL, primarily in physical health, than the general Norwegian population.