BackgroundThe prolonged survival of patients with thalassemia major as a result of the novel therapeutic strategies introduced in the last decade makes patient quality of life an important issue. This study investigated the changes occurring in overall quality of life in patients with thalassemia in the last decade.MethodsThis was a population-based cross-sectional survey of quality of life in the entire population with thalassemia major resident in the Liguria region of Italy from 2001 to 2009. The self-administered Short Form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire was used to measure quality of life in patients with thalassemia.ResultsForty-nine and 52 eligible patients were assessed in 2001 and 2009, respectively. A total of 43 patients were assessed in both 2001 and 2009. Almost 40% of these 43 patients received deferasirox in 2009, a drug which was not available in 2001. The distribution of ferritin levels was lower in 2009 (median 730) as compared with 2001 (median 1107). Analysis of the raw differences between the two years did not show a significant difference. An improvement was observed in most SF-36 scales in 2009 as compared with 2001, particularly in the Mental Health scale (mean difference in Z score +4.0; 95% confidence interval 0.4–7.5; P = 0.030) and in the Mental Component Summary scale (mean difference in Z score +3.2; 95% confidence interval 0.2–6.2; P = 0.039).ConclusionThe challenge associated with new therapies and improvement in mental quality of life dimensions indicates that implementation of effective interventions for screening and evaluation of quality of life is now urgent.

The study showed that many patients who RTW after angioplasty or heart surgery have poorer work experiences relative to changes in psychological and physical demands and more passive roles.

This study suggests a classification of the causal attributions in patients with cardiac diseases and identifies thematic patterns and unknown attributions. The themes identified can serve as categories for future closed-ended questions.

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Obiettivi di questa ricerca sono presentare due diverse modalitŕ di intervento educativo in cardiologia riabilitativa (CR) e valutarne l'efficacia in termini di miglioramento dello stato psicologico dei pazienti. Presso l'Istituto Cardiovascolare di Camogli sono stati reclutati 153 pazienti: 113 hanno partecipato ad un intervento di gruppo chiuso strutturato (gruppo di controllo) costituito da tre incontri con numero fisso di pazienti in cui si trattavano tematiche fondamentali in CR; gli altri 40 pazienti hanno partecipato al gruppo aperto semistrutturato (gruppo sperimentale) nato per meglio venire incontro alle esigenze dei pazienti ricoverati, che ha previsto almeno tre incontri per ciascun paziente. Tutti i pazienti sono stati valutati, all'ingresso e alle dimissioni, con una batteria di questionari indaganti diverse caratteristiche psicologiche. I risultati mostrano come le due modalitŕ portino a esiti positivi sostanzialmente sovrapponibili nel breve termine. Se tali riscontri fossero confermati su gruppi piů ampi, si potrebbero configurare per l'operatore importanti alternative organizzative, senza che l'intervento ne risenta in efficacia.