COMPARISON OF QUALITY OF LIFE OF CANCER PATIENTS UNDERGOING CHEMOTHERAPY IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL, RAWALPINDI

Quality of Life of Cancer Patients

Authors

  • Shamaila Mohsin Army Medical College/National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS) Rawalpindi Pakistan
  • Mahmood Ur Rehman Army Medical College/National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS) Rawalpindi Pakistan
  • Naila Azam Armed Forces Post Graduate Medical Institute (AFPGMI) Rawalpindi Pakistan
  • Syed Fawad Mashhadi Army Medical College/National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS) Rawalpindi Pakistan

Keywords:

Cancer, Chemotherapy, QOL

Abstract

Objective: To compare the Quality of Life (QOL) of cancer patients at different chemotherapy (CT) cycles.
Study Design: Cross sectional analytical.
Place and Duration of Study: Tertiary Care Hospital, Rawalpindi.
Material and Methods: Study was conducted in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Rawalpindi. Non-probability purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample of 50 cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. The patients were grouped in two on the basis of number of chemotherapy cycles, those having ≤ 2 CT cycles and those undergoing >2 CT cycles. After taking informed consent the data was collected using the European Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) to measure QOL in the patients. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 21. Baseline distinctiveness (demographic and HRQOL) was summarized by descriptive statistics. Mean and standard deviation of individual items in the two scales was calculated in two groups and statistical inference was drawn using Independent T test between the two groups, p value of ≤ 0.05 was considered as significant.
Results: The study sample comprised of 31 males and 19 females. Mean age of participants was 43.88 ± 12.72 (Range 18-70) with the most common age group being 41-50 years. There was a male preponderance (63%) and majority 36% were doing house hold work. Among the 50 subjects, 32 % were suffering from lung carcinoma, 26% had genitourinary cancer, 24% had cancer of the oral cavity while 18 % had carcinoma breast. As per the QOL scoring, in the Global Health Scale (GHS) the four items of symptom scale that is fatigue (p=0.02), nausea (p=0.00), pain (p=0.01) and appetite loss (0.03) attained a significant difference. Nevertheless, a significant difference was found between the level of QOL in patients with ≤ 2 CT cycles and with >2 cycles (p< 0.001). In the functional scale items only role functioning was significant.
Conclusion: This study suggests that the quality of life is related to chemotherapy cycles. Although QOL scoring system did not show significant improvement in all areas of our study, but the obtained results indicated a significant association between QOL and number of CT cycles in cancer patients.

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Published

28-02-2017

How to Cite

Mohsin, S., Rehman, M. U., Azam, N., & Mashhadi, S. F. (2017). COMPARISON OF QUALITY OF LIFE OF CANCER PATIENTS UNDERGOING CHEMOTHERAPY IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL, RAWALPINDI: Quality of Life of Cancer Patients. Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal, 66(1), 83–87. Retrieved from https://www.pafmj.org/PAFMJ/article/view/307

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