Impact of chemotherapy upon quality of life for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia

Abstract

Objective(s): To determine the impact of Chemotherapy upon the quality of life for patients with chronic myeloid
leukemia in Baghdad city.

Methodology: A descriptive study design was carried out The study was initiated from 30 January 2011 to October
2011.A purposive (non–probability) sample consisted of (130) patients with a chronic myeloid leukemia ,Who
attended to Baghdad Teaching Hospital and National Center for Research and Treatment of Hematology. The
sample criteria was the patients who were 18 years old and above, excluding the patients who suffered from
psychological problems and other chronic illnesses .A questionnaire was adopted and developed from European
Organization Research and treatment of Cancer Quality of life group (EORTC- QoLG).The questionnaire was
designed and composed of two parts: the first part deals with the sociodemographic clinical characteristics of CML
patients, the second part includes six domains of the quality of life which are symptoms (disease and treatmentrelated)
,psychosocial ,infertility, satisfaction, adherence to therapy ,and body image .The reliability and validity of
questionnaire were determined through a pilot study by correlation coefficient method, while the content validity
of the questionnaire was determined through a panel of experts. The data was collected through the application of
the questionnaire , the self-report ,interview technique and patient sheets. The data was analyzed through the
descriptive data analysis approach, which included frequency, percentage, standard deviation, mean, mean of
score and inferential data approach (T test, ANOVA).
Results: The present results revealed that the majority (33.84%), of the study sample were within the age groups
(31 –40) years. The results showed that the mean score were low QoL with all domains except satisfaction aspect
indicated high QoL. There was a statistically significant association between QoL as a general and sex, marital
status, occupation, crowding index, duration of disease, phase of disease and performance status, while there was
no statistically significant association between QoL as a general and age, socioeconomic status, and educational
level. The revealed no effect of disease and treatment related on quality of life.
Recommendation: The study recommended the establishment of hematology center, bone marrow
transplantation, the provision of genetic test, according to international standards and the second generation of
treatment