Bulletin
of the Multinational Center
of Quality of Life Research № 5-6

S.A. Kalyadina, A.V. Kishtovich, T.I. Ionova, A.A. Novik

Pain and its impact on quality of life in oncohematological patients: using of BPI and SF-36 questionnaires

The purposes of this study were to examine cancer pain severity and prevalence in patients with advanced hematological malignancies (N=85) and to define its impact on patients' quality of life by using both direct pain interference assessment (specific pain questionnaire - BPI) and outcome measurement (generic quality of life questionnaire - SF-36).
Among 62% patients with cancer pain about 50% reported its severity at moderate-to-severe levels. In patients with mild pain physical functioning (walking, work, general activity and sleep) was interfered first.
The more severe cancer pain the more psychological functioning impairment. Patients with moderate-to-severe cancer pain reported almost twice greater physical function interference and almost trice greater psychological function interference than those with mild pain.
Increasing pain intensity to moderate-to-severe level led to significant reduction of quality of life parameters with pronounced physical functioning impairment as well as role limitations due to physical and emotional problems (SF-36).
Using both pain specific and generic quality of life tools yielded in two patterns of pain impact that highlighted its role in worsening patients' well-being.