• Susan R Kahn, Thierry Ducruet, Donna L Lamping, Louise Arsenault, Marie Jose Miron, Andre Roussin, Sylvie Desmarais, France Joyal, Jeannine Kassis, Susan Solymoss, Louis Desjardins, Mira Johri, and Ian Shrier.
• Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Community Studies, Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. susan.kahn@mcgill.ca
• Arch Intern Med. 2005 May 23;165(10):1173-8.

BackgroundTo our knowledge, the burden of deep venous thrombosis from the patient's perspective has not been quantified. We evaluated health-related quality of life (QOL) after deep vein thrombosis and compared results with general population norms.MethodsThis was a multicenter prospective cohort study of 359 consecutive eligible patients with deep vein thrombosis recruited at 7 Canadian hospital centers. Quality of life was assessed at baseline and at 1 and 4 months after diagnosis using generic (36-Item Short-Form Health Survey) and disease-specific (Venous Insufficiency Epidemiological and Economic Study [VEINES]-QOL and VEINES symptom [VEINES-Sym] questionnaires) measures. Changes in QOL scores during the 4-month period were calculated, and determinants of lack of improvement in QOL were evaluated.ResultsDuring the 4 months, mean 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey physical and mental component summary scores improved by 5.1 and 4.6 points, respectively, and VEINES-QOL and VEINES-Sym scores improved by 3.1 and 2.2 points, respectively (P < .001 for time trend for all measures). However, about one third of patients had worsening of QOL during follow-up. Multivariate analyses showed that worsening of the postthrombotic syndrome score was an independent predictor of worsening of 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey physical component summary (P = .04), VEINES-QOL (P < .001), and VEINES-Sym (P < .001) scores. The 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey physical component summary scores were lower than population norms at all points assessed.ConclusionsOn average, QOL improves during the 4 months following deep vein thrombosis. However, in about one third of patients, QOL deteriorates, and at 4 months, average QOL remains poorer than population norms. Worsening of the postthrombotic syndrome score is associated with worsening of QOL.

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