Is Resilience a Protective Factor in Disease Trajectory of Multiple Myeloma?
Posted: Thursday, September 13, 2018
Patients with multiple myeloma and its precursor diseases may be likely to have higher health-related quality of life if they also have a high level of resilience, according to a study recently published in BMJ Open. Led by Imad Maatouk, MD, of the Medical University Hospital Heidelberg, Germany, and colleagues, the study analyzed the relationship between a person’s ability to adapt to adversity, or resilience, and his or her mental and physical health-related quality of life after a multiple myeloma diagnosis.
“Further studies with consecutive measurements are needed to gain deeper knowledge of psychosocial and physical factors that could be linked to resilience in multiple myeloma,” the investigators wrote. “Resilience could have a stronger protective effect on mental aspects of [health-related quality of life] and depression in early (untreated) stages, than at a later point in time….”
A total of 292 patients were included in the study, all of whom were treated at the Medical University Hospital in Heidelberg. Of those enrolled, 33.6% were newly diagnosed with active myeloma, 36.3% had previously been treated for myeloma, and 30.1% had been diagnosed with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance or smouldering multiple myeloma.
The researchers used a series of respective questionnaires to determine the physical and mental health-related qualities of life and the resilience of each participant. The study found that patients who were categorized as having a high level of resilience were also found to have higher levels of physical (P < .001) and mental (P < .001) health-related quality of life. An inverse association between the level of resilience and the likelihood of high depression severity (P < .001) was also identified.
