Comparison of Quality of Life in Thalassemia Major Patients with Injectable and oral Iron Depletion

One of the factors reducing the satisfaction and quality of life in thalassemia is the injection of iron-depleting drugs that always cause complications in these people. But with the advent of oral detoxification drugs, it can be predicted that this problem will be solved to some extent. Given that Sistan province is one of the regions with the highest prevalence of thalassemia in Iran, we aimed to compare the quality of life in major thalassemia patients receiving oral and injectable iron depleting drugs.

This cross-sectional descriptive-analytic (Prospective) study was performed during a one-year period (2017-2018) in Ali Asghar Hospital of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences. Demographic information of patients was extracted and recorded through history as well as the information in their files. EQ5D questionnaire was used to assess the quality of life. Data were analyzed using SPSS 18 software.

the quality of life score is significantly higher in Patients receiving oral treatment than injecting patients (p= 0.02). The issue is also true in terms of the health degree of the patients in both groups (p=0.03). Furthermore, comparing the quality of life score and health status of patients between the two groups receiving injectable and oral iron deprivation showed that in females, under 15 years of age and the patients with poor acceptance, the degree of health in the group receiving oral decontamination was higher than injectable decontamination.

Quality of life in patients with thalassemia treated with oral iron depletion is higher than patients receiving injectable iron depletion treatment, and in under 15-year-old females and patients with poor acceptance, this difference is significant.