The effect of marital status on the survival of patients with multiple myeloma
Lina Tang, Zhenyu Pan, Xiaoxia Zhang
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To investigate the impact of marriage on multiple myeloma (MM) survival, and the role of factors such as age, sex, and income in this relationship. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database was searched for eligible MM patients between 2007 and 2016. We compared overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) differences by the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank tests. The hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for OS and CSS were estimated by Cox regression models. A 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was used to minimize the covariates differences between married and unmarried group. RESULTS: < 0.05). The beneficial effect of marriage on the survival of MM was particularly prominent in younger (<65 years) patients, males, higher income patients, non-Hispanic whites, and more recent years. CONCLUSION: Married patients with MM tend to have better OS and CSS likely due to their higher income, education level, insurance and receipt of chemotherapy.