TORONTO—A survey of adult hemophilia patients suggests there is room for improvement in assessing and managing disease-related pain.
Roughly 85% of patients surveyed for this study, known as P-FiQ, said they had experienced acute and/or chronic pain in the past 6 months.
Although most patients had no trouble caring for themselves, the pain often had an impact on their daily lives, especially with regard to physical activity and overall mobility.
“Pain and discomfort are significant challenges for people with hemophilia,” said study investigator Michael Recht, MD, PhD, of Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland.
“These results emphasize the importance of providing comprehensive care and support beyond traditional therapy to people living with bleeding disorders.”
Dr Recht and his colleagues presented results of the P-FiQ study in 3 posters at the ISTH 2015 Congress (abstracts PO277-MON, PO297-WED, and PO298-WED).
The study included adult males with mild to severe hemophilia who had a history of joint pain or bleeding. Subjects were asked to assess pain and functional impairment using patient-reported outcome instruments.
During routine visits over the course of a year, 164 participants completed a pain history and 5 questionnaires: the EQ-5D-5L; Brief Pain Inventory Short Form, version 2; International Physical Activity Questionnaire; SF-36v2; and Hemophilia Activities List.
The patients had a median age of 34. More patients had hemophilia A (n=122) than hemophilia B (n=42), and few (n=10) had inhibitors. Sixty-one percent of patients had self-reported arthritis, bone, or joint problems.
Current patient-reported treatment regimens (n=163) were prophylaxis (42%), on-demand treatment (39%), or mostly on-demand treatment (19%). Twenty-five of the 31 patients using on-demand treatment reported using infusions ahead of activity.
Pain prevalence and management
Most participants (85.2%) said they had experienced acute and/or chronic pain over the past 6 months. Twenty-nine percent said they had experienced acute and chronic pain, 32.7% had chronic pain only, 23.5% had acute pain only, and 14.8% reported no pain.
Acute pain was most frequently described as sharp, aching, shooting, and throbbing. Chronic pain was often described as aching, nagging, throbbing, and sharp.
The most common analgesics used for acute or chronic pain were acetaminophen (69.4% and 58%, respectively), NSAIDs (40% and 52%, respectively), and hydrocodone-acetaminophen (29.4% and 33%, respectively).
The most common nonanalgesic strategies used for acute or chronic pain were ice (72.9% and 37%, respectively), rest (48.2% and 34%, respectively), factor VIII/IX or bypassing agent (48.2% and 24%, respectively), elevation (34.1% and 28%, respectively), relaxation (30.6% and 23.0%, respectively), compression (27.1% and 21%, respectively), and heat (24.7% and 15%, respectively).
Impact of pain on daily life
When completing the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire, most patients reported problems with mobility, performing usual activities, and pain or discomfort. However, most patients said they had no problems with self-care (78%) or anxiety/depression (58.5%).
A similar proportion of patients reported slight and moderate pain and discomfort (29.9% and 31.1%, respectively). Pain and discomfort was severe for 11% of patients and extreme for 1.2%, but 26.8% of patients reported no pain or discomfort.
When it came to mobility, patients reported slight (32.3%), moderate (19.5%), and severe (8.5%) problems, and 1.2% of patients said they were unable to get around. However, 38.4% of patients reported having no such problems.
About 44% of patients reported no problems performing usual activities, but 37.2% had slight problems, 14.6% had moderate problems, and 1.8% of patients each had severe problems or were unable to perform usual activities.
For the Brief Pain Inventory, pain severity and interference with daily activities were rated on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being no pain/no interference and 10 being pain as bad as you can imagine/pain that completely interferes with daily life.
The overall median pain severity and pain interference were 3.0 (range, 1.3-4.8) and 2.9 (range, 0.7-5.2), respectively. The median worst pain was 6.0, least pain 2.0, average pain 3.0, and current pain 2.0. Ankles were the most frequently reported site of pain.
When completing the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, 49.3% of patients (73/148) reported no activity in the prior week.
The median SF-36v2 scores were lower for physical health domains than mental health domains, and the overall median health score was 3.0 (range, 2.0-3.0).
The median score on the Hemophilia Activities List was 76.1 (range, 59.2-95.1). And patients said hemophilia had a greater impact on their lower extremities than upper extremities.
Dr Recht and his colleagues said these results substantiate the high prevalence of pain in adults with hemophilia. And the study highlights opportunities to improve the assessment and management of pain in these patients.
Study investigators have received funding/consulting fees from—or are employees/shareholders of—Novo Nordisk, Baxter, Biogen, Bayer, OctaPharma, Pfizer, CSL Behring, Kendrion, Alexion, Grifols, OPKO Health, Sanofi, Merck, and ProMeticLife Sciences.
