Background: The main objective of this study was to explore health-related quality of life (HRQoL) profiles, chronic disease management practices and key factors associated with HRQoL in 540 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase (CML-CP) administered tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs).
Methods: Adult CML-CP patients treated with TKIs in Henan Cancer Hospital from March 2015 to October 2019 were assessed via questionnaires, including demographic characteristics, TKI medications, participation in CML disease management, and HRQoL, in a cross-sectional investigation. Respondents were anonymous. Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Leukemia (FACT-Leu) was used to measure HRQoL. A multivariate linear regression model with stepwise entry was used to investigate variables independently associated with HRQoL domain and total scores.
Results: Totally, 540 respondents were included; 302 (55.93%) were male. Mean participant age was 42.90±13.00 years; 169 (31.3%), 178 (32.9%) and 193 (35.7%) individuals had a low, moderate or high disease management level, respectively. Except for insignificant event-free survival information, participants with higher disease management levels also had significantly higher rates of completing re-examination, drug withdrawal, cytogenetic response (CcyR) and/or major molecular response (MMR) (all P<0.01). Moreover, higher disease management level was accompanied by eight significantly higher HRQoL domains (all P<0.01). In multivariate linear regression analysis, variables significantly associated with a higher HRQoL included: (I) high disease management level (B=3.68, P=0.046); (II) transportation convenience (B=6.67, P<0.001); (III) family annual income >10,000 CNY (B=5.97, P<0.001); (IV) completed re-examination (B=4.58, P=0.036); (V) MMR (B=3.75, P=0.021) and CcyR (B=5.15, P=0.035). Female sex (B=-3.53, P=0.010), single status or divorce (B=-1.89 and -2.94, P=0.005 and 0.011), and low education level (B=-1.44, P=0.019) were significantly associated with lower HRQoL.
Conclusions: Higher disease management level was significantly associated with higher elevated treatment efficacy and HRQoL in Chinese individuals with CML-CP administered TKIs. These data indicate the importance of chronic disease management on people's HRQoL and clinical outcome.
Keywords: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML); disease management; health-related quality of life (HRQoL); treatment effect.