Alexander Ngwube

and 15 more

Background While racial disparities in the clinical outcomes of hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) patients have been explored, racial disparities in quality of life (QoL) during the readjustment phase after transplant has yet to be investigated in pediatric patients. The objective of this study was to examine the role of patient race in QoL at least two years after pediatric HSCT. Procedure We conducted a retrospective chart review of patients under 21 years of age at diagnosis that received an allogeneic transplant at our institution between January 2007 and December 2017. Patient QoL was assessed using the PedsQL TM 4.0 at least two years post-transplant. Patient demographic, treatment, and transplant outcome data were obtained for subsequent analysis, where patient race was categorized as either Black, White, Hispanic, or Native American. Results Data were collected on 86 pediatric patients who underwent HSCT. Forty patients (46.5%) were non-Hispanic White, 29 (33.7%) Hispanic, 10 (11.6%) Black, and 7 (8.1%) Native American. Where preliminary analyses indicated a difference in QoL by patient race, there were no significant differences in physical, emotional, social, and school functioning by patient race after adjusting for transplant characteristics (age at transplant, sex, diagnosis, donor type and conditioning regimen) and determinants of socioeconomic status (insurance type, estimated household income). Conclusions Pediatric patients had comparable QoL, regardless of race, at a median of three years after HSCT in our study cohort.