Amjad Mehmood, Abdul Qayum, Tariq Mehmood Mughal, Arshad Qureshi, Tariq Masood, Sardar Majeed Khan, Ehtisham-ul Haq.
Assessment of change in quality of life parameters (sf-36, flanagan) with treatment in patients with iron-deficiency anaemia.
Pak J Public Health Jan ;4(2):30-5.
Introduction: The study was carried out to quantitatively assess the effect of the disease on quality of life (QoL) of patients with iron-deciency anaemia (IDA), and also the change in QoL scores with treatment.We carried out a prospective study to explore the effect of anaemia on quality of life (QoL), and whether the treatment helps to improve QoL. Methods: The patients with conrmed iron-deciency anaemia were included in the study. Blood was analysed for full blood count, mean corpuscular volume, haemoglobin (Hb), ferritin, transferrin, transferrin saturation, and microscopic analysis of the blood lm. Iron deciency was dened if these parameters fell outside local reference values. The patients with background chronic illness, cancer and pregnancy were excluded from the study. A total of 128 patients were included in the study. The treatment was carried out by oral ferrous sulphate. QoL scores were estimated according to two scoring systems; SF-36 and Flanagan QoL score. All patients treated with iron were reviewed at three months to assess response to their treatment allocation. Response to the treatment was dened as full (Hb rise of more than 2 g/dL), partial (Hb rise of 1-1.9 g/dL), or no response (Hb change of less than 1 g/dL). Iron stores were assessed with a repeat ferritin level. Patients with a full or partial response to oral iron were continued on this treatment. Results: The generalized total SF-36 score prior to and after treatment was compared and considerable difference found. Pre-treatment Flanagan score was estimated to be 50±4.9, which increased to70.6±4.08 after treatment. The compliance to treatment was 100%. The compliance to adherence to in-time attendance for QoL protocol was 100%. Conclusions: The results have shown a benecial effect of treatment on QoL and underlines the necessity of substitution treatment at earlier stages even if symptoms are not compelling. (Pak J Public Health 2014; 4(2):22-27) Key-words: Iron deciency anaemia, quality of life, asymptomatic iron deciency, Flanagan score, SF-36 score
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