Blood, 15 March 2002, Vol. 99, No. 6, pp. 1995-2001
CLINICAL OBSERVATIONS, INTERVENTIONS, AND THERAPEUTIC TRIALS
Health-related quality of life of unrelated bone marrow donors
in Japan
Mina Nishimori,
Yoshitsugu Yamada,
Keiko Hoshi,
Yuichi Akiyama,
Yasutaka Hoshi,
Yasuo Morishima,
Masahiro Tsuchida,
Shunichi Fukuhara, and
Yoshihisa Kodera
From the Department of Anesthesiology, Faculty of
Medicine, University of Tokyo; Department of Anesthesiology, Yokohama
City University School of Medicine; Japan Marrow Donor Program; and
Department of Epidemiology and Health Care Research, Graduate School of
Medicine and Public Health, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
To promote bone marrow donation, both the safety and well-being of
healthy unrelated volunteer donors must be protected. This prospective
cohort study evaluated donors' health-related quality of life (HRQOL)
and identified factors associated with it. Using the Medical Outcomes
Study Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) before bone marrow harvesting
(BMH), and again 1 week and 3 months after the donors' discharge, we
evaluated HRQOL of 565 donors (329 men, 236 women) registered with the
Japan Marrow Donor Program (JMDP). We also examined the data routinely
collected by the JMDP, such as BMH-related problems and other
demographic and medical variables, to determine whether such data could
be used to predict donors' HRQOL after discharge. Mean scores of all
pre-BMH SF-36 subscales showed better functioning than the national
norm. One week after discharge, mean scores on physical functioning
(PF) and role-physical (RP) subscales, indicative of physical states, and bodily pain (BP) were approximately 1 SD lower than the national norm; however, mental health (MH) and general health perception (GH)
remained above normal; the most frequent BMH-related problems were pain
at the donation site and lower back pain, which were associated with
lower PF, RP, and BP scores. Female gender and duration of procedure
predicted lower PF, RP, and BP. Three months after discharge, mean
scores of all SF-36 subscales had returned to baseline levels. These
data show that the adverse effects of BMH on donors' HRQOL are
transient and can be minimized by better management of pain.
