Health-related quality of life in patients with iron deficiency anemia: impact of treatment with intravenous iron

William E Strauss, Michael Auerbach, William E Strauss, Michael Auerbach

Abstract

Most physicians appear to be aware of the health consequences of advanced anemia, especially in the acute setting, frequently responding with a not inconsequential therapeutic default of transfusion. In contrast, the profound impact that chronic anemia, of any degree, may have on a patient's performance is underappreciated. The focus of this review is to 1) delineate the consistent and broad impact of anemia on patient quality of life as documented by multiple well-validated patient-reported outcome instruments and 2) demonstrate the essential normalization of the debilitation as assessed by these instruments following the administration of intravenous iron.

Keywords: anemia; health-related quality of life; intravenous iron; iron deficiency anemia.

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure WES is an employee of AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and holds equity in the company. MA has received research funding for data management only from AMAG Pharmaceuticals and Pharmacosmos and has consulted for Allergan, AMAG Pharmaceuticals, American Regent/Luitpold, and Pharmacosmos. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mean baseline scores with the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey. Note: Error bars represent the 95% CI (1.96× standard error). Copyrighted 2016. Frontline Medical Communications. 268243:0618CH. Reprinted from Strauss W, Dahl N, Vadhan-Raj S, et al. Effects of IV iron treatment with ferumoxytol on health-related quality of life of patients with iron deficiency anemia. J Community Support Oncol. 2016;14(8):342–350.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Change in LASA scores from baseline to end point evaluation. Note: Reprinted with permission. © 2004 American Society of Clinical Oncology. All rights reserved. Auerbach M, Ballard H, Trout JR, et al. Intravenous iron optimizes the response to recombinant human erythropoietin in cancer patients with chemotherapy-related anemia: a multicenter, open-label, randomized trial. J Clin Oncol. 2004;22(7):1301–1307. Abbreviations: LASA, linear analog scale assessment; QOL, quality of life; TDI, total dose infusion.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mean FACIT-Fatigue scores. Notes:P-values represent between-group differences in change scores and were derived from the least-squares mean and an analysis of covariance model, adjusted for baseline hemoglobin and underlying condition. Error bars represent the 95% CI (1.96× standard error). *P<0.05; **P<0.01; ***P<0.001. Copyrighted 2016. Frontline Medical Communications. 268243:0618CH. Reprinted from Strauss W, Dahl N, Vadhan-Raj S, et al. Effects of IV iron treatment with ferumoxytol on health-related quality of life of patients with iron deficiency anemia. J Community Support Oncol. 2016;14(8):342–350. Abbreviation: FACIT, Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Mean change from baseline to week 5 with the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey. Notes: Between-group difference in change scores: *P<0.05; **P<0.01; ***P<0.001. P-value was derived from the least-squares mean and an analysis of covariance model, adjusted for baseline hemoglobin and underlying condition. Error bars represent the 95% CI (1.96× standard error). Copyrighted 2016. Frontline Medical Communications. 268243:0618CH. Reprinted from Strauss W, Dahl N, Vadhan-Raj S, et al. Effects of IV iron treatment with ferumoxytol on health-related quality of life of patients with iron deficiency anemia. J Community Support Oncol. 2016;14(8):342–350.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Mean change from baseline to weeks 3 and 5 with the linear analog scale assessment. Notes:P-values represent between-group differences in change scores and were derived from the least-squares mean and an analysis of covariance model, adjusted for baseline hemoglobin and underlying condition. Error bars represent the 95% CI (1.96× standard error). *P<0.05; **P<0.01; ***P<0.001. Copyrighted 2016. Frontline Medical Communications. 268243:0618CH. Reprinted from Strauss W, Dahl N, Vadhan-Raj S, et al. Effects of IV iron treatment with ferumoxytol on health-related quality of life of patients with iron deficiency anemia. J Community Support Oncol. 2016;14(8):342–350.

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