Survival analysis of -thalassemia major patients in Khouzestan province referring to Shafa hospital

Iran is one of the countries located on the -thalassemia belt. The prevalence of this disease is in the margin of Caspian sea, Persian gulf and Oman sea, In Iran. The most prevalent is found in several provinces which include Mazandaran, Gilan, Khuzestan, Fars, Bushehr, Hormozgan, Sistan-Baluchestan and Keram. Khuzestan province, with a population of about 4 million, is located in south-west of Iran has different rates of thalassemia affecting various resident ethnic groups, including Arab, Lor and Fars. The aim of the present study was to determine the survival of -thalasemia major patients according to ethnicity and gender of the patients and to compare these results of with those reported for Hormozgan and Sistan-Baluchestan provinces.Subjects and In this cross-sectional study 109 thalassemia major patients from the more than 2000 file of the patients who referred to the Shafa hospital between 1999-2006 were selected by questionnaire. Life table, Kaplan- Meier test and logarithmic rank were used for data analysis. Of the 109 patients with major thalassemia, 53.2% were male and 46.8% were female. Of ethnic 13.9% were Fars, 13.9% Lor, 69.4% Arab and 2.8 % other ethnicities. The age survival proportion were 5 (97%), 10 (87%), 15 (76%), 20 (68%) and 30 (41%) years. The results of this study showed that survival of patients in Khuzestan was less than compare with Sistan-Baluchestan and Hormozgan provinces. In addition, the results showed that ethnicity (Arab, Fars and Lor) and sex of patients with major thalassemia in Khuzestan province has no significant effect (P >0.17) on their survival.