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Prospectively measured 10-year changes in health-related quality of life and comparison with cross-sectional estimates in a population-based cohort of adult women and men

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Abstract

Purpose

To prospectively assess changes in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) over 10 years, by age and sex, and to compare measured within-person change to estimates of change based on cross-sectional data.

Methods

Participants in the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study completed the 36-item short form (SF-36) in 1995/1997 and 2005/2007. Mean within-person changes for domain and summary components were calculated for men and women separately, stratified by 10-year age groups. Projected changes based on published age- and sex-stratified cross-sectional data were also calculated. Mean differences between the two methods were then estimated, along with the 95 % credible intervals of the differences.

Results

Data were available for 5,569/9,423 (59.1 %) of the original cohort. Prospectively collected 10-year changes suggested that the four physically oriented domains declined in all but the youngest group of men and women, with declines in the elderly men exceeding 25 points. The four mentally oriented domains tended to improve over time, only showing substantial declines in vitality and role emotional in older women, and all four domains in older men. Cross-sectional estimates identified a similar pattern of change but with a smaller magnitude, particularly in men. Correspondence between the two methods was generally high.

Conclusions

Changes in HRQOL may be minimal over much of the life span, but physically oriented HRQOL can decline substantially after middle age. Although clinically relevant declines were more evident in prospectively collected data, differences in 10-year age increments of cross-sectional data may be a reasonable proxy for longitudinal changes, at least in those under 65 years of age. Results provide additional insight into the natural progression of HRQOL in the general population.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Research Centre, Kingston General Hospital, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Wilma M. Hopman

  2. Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Wilma M. Hopman & Tanveer Towheed

  3. CaMos Methods Centre, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Claudie Berger & Wei Zhou

  4. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Lawrence Joseph

  5. Department of Medicine/Endocrinology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Jerilynn C. Prior

  6. Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Tanveer Towheed & Tassos Anastassiades

  7. Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Jonathan D. Adachi

  8. University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    David A. Hanley

  9. Eli Lilly Canada, Inc., Toronto, ON, Canada

    Emmanuel A. Papadimitropoulos

  10. Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Emmanuel A. Papadimitropoulos

  11. Departments of Community Health and Epidemiology and Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Susan Kirkland

  12. Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Stephanie M. Kaiser

  13. Department of Medicine, St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Robert G. Josse

  14. Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    David Goltzman

Authors
  1. Wilma M. Hopman
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  2. Claudie Berger
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  3. Lawrence Joseph
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  4. Wei Zhou
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  5. Jerilynn C. Prior
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  6. Tanveer Towheed
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  7. Tassos Anastassiades
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  8. Jonathan D. Adachi
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  9. David A. Hanley
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  10. Emmanuel A. Papadimitropoulos
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  11. Susan Kirkland
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  12. Stephanie M. Kaiser
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  13. Robert G. Josse
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  14. David Goltzman
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and the CaMos Research Group

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wilma M. Hopman.

Additional information

Please see the “Appendix” section for CaMos Research Group members.

Appendix: CaMos Research Group

Appendix: CaMos Research Group

  • David Goltzman (co-principal investigator, McGill University), Nancy Kreiger (co-principal investigator, Toronto), Alan Tenenhouse (principal investigator emeritus, Toronto).

  • CaMos Coordinating Centre, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec: Suzanne Godmaire (research assistant), Silvia Dumont (administrative assistant), Claudie Berger (study statistician), Lisa Langsetmo (Fellow), Wei Zhou (statistician).

  • Memorial University, St. John’s Newfoundland: Carol Joyce (director), Christopher Kovacs (co-director), Emma Sheppard (coordinator).

  • Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia: Susan Kirkland, Stephanie Kaiser (co-directors), Barbara Stanfield (coordinator).

  • Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec: Jacques P. Brown (director), Louis Bessette (co-director).

  • Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario: Tassos Anastassiades (director), Tanveer Towheed (co-director), Wilma Hopman (research associate), Karen Rees-Milton (coordinator).

  • University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario: Bob Josse (director), Sophie Jamal (co-director), Barbara Gardner-Bray (coordinator).

  • McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario: Jonathan D. Adachi (director), Alexandra Papaioannou (co-director), Laura Pickard (coordinator).

  • University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: Wojciech P. Olszynski (director), K. Shawn Davison (co-director), Jola Thingvold (coordinator).

  • University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta: David A. Hanley (director), Jane Allan (coordinator).

  • University British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia: Jerilynn C. Prior (director), Millan Patel (co-director), Brian Lentle (radiologist), Nerkeza Andjelic (coordinator).

  • McGill University, Montreal, Quebec: Elham Rahme (biostatistician), Brent Richards (research associate).

  • University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta: Stuart Jackson (medical physicist).

  • University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba: William Leslie (nuclear medicine physician). CaMos is currently funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Amgen Canada Inc., Dairy Farmers of Canada, Merck Canada, Eli Lilly Canada, Novartis Canada.

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Hopman, W.M., Berger, C., Joseph, L. et al. Prospectively measured 10-year changes in health-related quality of life and comparison with cross-sectional estimates in a population-based cohort of adult women and men. Qual Life Res 23, 2707–2721 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-014-0733-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-014-0733-5

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