Effect of therapeutic regimens and polypharmacy on health-related quality of life of people with multiple myeloma: a cross-sectional study in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. (3rd August 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Malta, Jéssica Soares; Drummond, Paula Lana de Miranda; Silveira, Lívia Pena; Costa, Naiane Lima; Santos, Roberta Márcia Marques dos; Machado, Carla Jorge; Reis, Adriano Max Moreira; de Pádua, Cristiane Aparecida Menezes
• Is Part Of: Current medical research and opinion. Volume 38:Number 8(2022)
• Page Start: 1275
• Page End: 1283
• Publication Date: 2022-08-03
• Subjects: Health-related quality of life -- multiple myeloma -- therapeutic regimens -- polypharmacy; Clinical medicine -- Periodicals; Therapeutics -- Periodicals; 615.5
• DOI: 10.1080/03007995.2022.2034387
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0300-7995

Abstract

Abstract: Objective: Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable hematological cancer and its treatment is geared to promote better Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL). We aimed to assess HRQoL and compare scores between variables on therapeutic regimens and polypharmacy in MM patients. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed from April/2019 to February/2020 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. HRQoL scores were obtained by the QLQ-C30 and QLQ-MY20 instruments. Data were retrieved from interviews and medical records. Therapeutic regimens were grouped into thalidomide-containing regimens; bortezomib-containing regimens; bortezomib and thalidomide-containing regimens; other therapeutic regimens, and remission group. We performed univariate analyses by the Mann-Whitney method and adopted the Kruskal-Wallis test for multiple comparisons. Robust multiple linear regression was used to determine the association between independent variables and the HRQoL scores. Results: The sample included 225 participants and most patients (65.3%) were on active treatment and had worse scores concerning future perspective. Polypharmacy was associated with worse scores on all scales in the univariate analyses. We observed a difference in the global health and body image ( p < .05) scales in the multiple comparisons with therapeutic regimens. The global health scale difference was found between groups with other regimens and the remission group ( p < .05). The difference between the bortezomib and thalidomide-containing regimens and remission group was not statistically significant ( p = .077) in the body image scale. The multiple linear regression maintained the association of polypharmacy with worse HRQoL scores. Conclusion: We identified an independent association between HRQoL and polypharmacy in MM patients. However, there was no difference between the evaluated regimens, suggesting they are equivalent in Brazil about HRQoL.