Changes in quality of life 6 months after parathyroidectomy for primary hyperparathyroidism

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Objective

The extent of symptoms due to primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) depends on the population being studied. PHPT is mainly discovered incidentally through routine laboratory findings. Less is known about patient-experienced improvement following successful parathyroidectomy. The aim of our study was to assess the changes in the quality of life (QoL) after successful surgery using an SF-36 questionnaire.

Design

This is a prospective cohort study based on questionnaires.

Methods

Forty consecutive patients diagnosed with PHPT were prospectively administered an SF-36 questionnaire before and 6 months after successful parathyroidectomy. A subgroup of 18 patients answered the questionnaire at 1 and 3 months after surgery. Successful surgery was based on biochemistry and pathology reports as confirmed by an endocrinologist. Results of each SF-36 subcategory were compared to the results at baseline in order to detect changes in patient-reported QoL after successful surgery.

Results

There were significant improvements in six of eight SF-36 subcategories: vitality ( P = 0.0001), physical functioning ( P = 0.04), general health perception ( P = 0.004), physical role functioning ( P = 0.04), social role functioning (P = 0.004), and mental health perception ( P = 0.0001). Changes appeared within a month after surgery with no further significant changes at later time points.

Conclusions

Parathyroidectomy significantly improves QoL as measured by a decrease in SF-36 scores as early as 1 month after successful parathyroidectomy. The SF-36 QoL questionnaire is suitable for monitoring changes in patient well-being after successful parathyroidectomy.

Related collections

Most cited references 15

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Hyperparathyroidism

William Fraser (2009)

The Lancet, 374(9684), 145-158

0 comments Cited 251 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

The Danish SF-36 Health Survey: translation and preliminary validity studies.

J. Bjorner, K Thunedborg, T Kristensen … (1998)

This article reports on the Danish translation of SF-36 and discusses the procedures used for translation improvement, translation evaluation, and scale evaluation. We followed the standard procedures of the International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) Project including forward and backward translation, independent assessment of translation quality, assessment of response-choice weighting through visual analogue scale (VAS) investigations, and psychometric testing of the translated questionnaire. We found that backward translation, independent quality assessment, and VAS studies provided useful information for translation improvement. The Danish SF-36 received a favorable translation evaluation by independent rating; however, interrater agreement was low. Preliminary validity studies generally supported the internal consistency and homogeneity of the Danish SF-36, and the questionnaire performed satisfactorily in distinguishing depressive patients from nonpatients. On the basis of this and other studies, we recommend use of the Danish SF-36 in research.