TABLE 5.
Health‐related quality of life among women aged ≤55 who did and did not initiate MHT use after treatment for ovarian cancer.
| Time 0—before MHT initiation b | Time 1—1–3 months after MHT initiation b | Time 2—subsequent questionnaire b | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non‐users (n = 186) | MHT initiators (n = 21) | Non‐users (n = 186) | MHT use (n = 21) | Non‐users (n = 168) | MHT use (n = 12) | ||||
| Health‐related quality of life measurement a | Median (IQR) | Median (IQR) | P c | Median (IQR) | Median (IQR) | P c | Median (IQR) | Median (IQR) | P c |
| Wellbeing (FACT‐G) | 86 (75–98) | 73 (67–79) | 0.02 | 90 (79–98) | 78 (67–88) | 0.01 | 88 (72–99) | 75 (63–93) | 0.1 |
| Functional (max 28) | 20 (16–25) | 16 (13–21) | 0.05 | 23 (18–26) | 18 (14–21) | 0.02 | 22 (17–26) | 18 (14–22) | 0.1 |
| Emotional (max 24) | 20 (18–23) | 20 (16–21) | 0.3 | 20 (18–22) | 18 (16–20) | 0.03 | 20 (16–22) | 19 (16–21) | 0.3 |
| Social/family (max 28) | 23 (19–26) | 20 (19–25) | 0.1 | 23 (19–27) | 21 (18–24) | 0.2 | 23 (18–26) | 20 (18–25) | 0.5 |
| Physical (max 28) | 24 (20–26) | 19 (16–23) | 0.01 | 25 (21–27) | 21 (16–24) | 0.002 | 24 (21–27) | 23 (17–26) | 0.2 |
| Fatigue (max 52) | 40 (31–46) | 31 (22–38) | 0.004 | 43 (35–49) | 31 (22–42) | 0.001 | 42 (32–48) | 28 (25–45) | 0.1 |
| Insomnia (ISI, max 28) | 5 (0–11) | 8 (5–13) | 0.1 | 5 (0–11) | 10 (0–11) | 0.2 | 1 (0–11) | 10 (0–13) | 0.5 |
| Insomnia d | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | |||
| No insomnia | 117 (63) | 7 (41) | 0.1 | 118 (64) | 7 (41) | 0.1 | 96 (60) | 3 (37) | 0.3 |
| Subclinical/clinical | 68 (36) | 10 (59) | 67 (36) | 10 (59) | 65 (40) | 5 (63) | |||
| FACT‐GS7 e | 0.03 | 0.02 | 0.8 | ||||||
| Not satisfied | 60 (43) | 13 (68) | 56 (40) | 12 (71) | 62 (49) | 6 (54) | |||
| Somewhat & satisfied | 81 (57) | 6 (32) | 84 (60) | 5 (29) | 65 (51) | 5 (45) | |||
Note: Bold values denote statistical significance at the p < 0.05 level.
Abbreviations: FACIT‐fatigue: Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy—fatigue (range 0–52); FACT, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy; IQR, inter‐quartile range; ISI: Insomnia Severity Index. MHT: menopausal hormone therapy.
The counts in sub‐categories may not add up to the total number due to missing data. The FACT‐G includes 27 items in 4 sub‐scales providing a total QOL score (0–108), higher scores indicate better QOL. Fatigue was measured using FACIT‐fatigue with higher scores indicating less fatigue.
Time‐0 was the first questionnaire after treatment; this had to be before starting MHT for users. Time‐1 was the second questionnaire after treatment (never users) or the first after starting MHT (users). Time‐2 was the questionnaire after Time 1.
Kruskal–Wallis non‐parametric test, Pearson chi‐square test or Fisher exact test as appropriate.
ISI scores 8–14 (considered mild insomnia) and 15+ (moderate to severe insomnia) were combined as sub‐clinical/clinical insomnia.
The question regarding sex life: ‘I am satisfied with my sex life’; ‘not at all’ and ‘a little bit’ were combined as ‘not satisfied’; ‘somewhat, quite a bit and very much’ were combined as ‘somewhat/satisfied’.