Chronic Conditions and Utility-Based Health-Related Quality of Life in Adult Childhood Cancer Survivors

Health utility, a summary measure of quality of life, has not been previously used to compare outcomes among childhood cancer survivors and individuals without a cancer history. We estimated health utility (0, death; 1, perfect health) using the Short Form-6D (SF-6D) in survivors (n = 7105) and siblings of survivors (n = 372) (using the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study cohort) and the general population (n = 12 803) (using the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey). Survivors had statistically significantly lower SF-6D scores than the general population (mean = 0.769, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.766 to 0.771, vs mean = 0.809, 95% CI = 0.806 to 0.813, respectively, P < .001, two-sided). Young adult survivors (age 18-29 years) reported scores comparable with general population estimates for people age 40 to 49 years. Among survivors, SF-6D scores were largely determined by number and severity of chronic conditions. No clinically meaningful differences were identified between siblings and the general population (mean = 0.793, 95% CI = 0.782 to 0.805, vs mean = 0.809, 95% CI = 0.806 to 0.813, respectively). This analysis illustrates the importance of chronic conditions on long-termsurvivor quality of life and provides encouraging results on sibling well-being. Preference-based utilities are informative tools for outcomes research in cancer survivors.