The SF-36 instrument for the follow-up of health-related quality-of-life assessment of patients undergoing home parenteral nutrition for benign disease.

Introduction: The non-disease-specific SF-36 instrument was applied to detect changes in quality of life among patients at a single center who were receiving home parenteral nutrition (HPN) for intestinal failure.

Methods: All HPN patients completed the questionnaire during routine visits. The SF-36 examines eight domains (scores: 0% to 100%): physical functioning (PF), role-functioning physical (RP), body pain (BP), general health (GH), vitality (VT), social functioning (SF), as well as role-functioning emotional (RE) and mental health (MH). Patient responses were standardized for the sex- and age-matched group scores of the healthy population by calculating the Z-score: (healthy population mean score - patient raw score)/healthy population standard deviation (reduced value: Z-score < -1). A difference in a domain score was considered significant in the individual patient if it was greater than the 90% confidence interval for healthy subjects and if it produced a change in Z-score category. General, sociodemographic, underlying disease and HPN-related factors were collected.

Results: For 31 enrolled adult patients, the baseline mean Z-score was reduced in five domains: PF, RP, BP, GH and SF. Twenty patients underwent a second SF-36 assessment 10 +/- 2 months later: the HRQOL worsened in eight and improved in 10 (no. worsened domains > no. improved or vice versa). The worsened subgroup showed a decrease in body mass index (P =.104), an increase in the number of HPN infusions per week (P =.065), and a greater incidence of intestinal motility disorders (P =.161), of liquid oral diet (P =.027), and of nycturia (P =.028).

Conclusions: The SF-36 instrument reflecting the generic HRQOL assessment may be a suitable tool for patients on HPN.