Health-related quality of life in different therapeutic status in patients with different cancers
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Tsai, Cheng-Tsong
Abstract
Cancer was the first of ten leading causes of death in Taiwan with the increased incidence rate and death rate year by year. The symptoms of the cancer and the treatment itself or the side effect of treatment all influenced the patient’s quality of life. Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is one of the important clinical indices to evaluate clinical result of treatment and is further implied to other medical economic evaluation as base of medical policy. The differences of HRQOL in patients with different cancer receiving chemotherapy or follow-up as well as the relative factor analysis were the purposes of present study.ethod: The present study is a cross-section study design with purposive sampling. 3 groups of patients of breast cancer, lung cancer and nasopharyngeal cancer receiving chemotherapy or follow-up in a medical centre in Taipei were interviewed by structured questionnaire. Patients’ demographic data, including age, gender, and education was collected and EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire were used to assess the patients’ HRQOL. The 5 functional scales are defined as indicator variables and the other symptom scales and single items are defined as causal variables. To predict the cancer patients’ HRQOL and analyze the influence to indicator variables, Pearson’s correlation and stepwise regression were employed.esults: Two hundred and eighty-eight patients completed the study. There were 54.51% female, and mean age of whole group was 50.72±11.83 years old. In the HRQOL, the patients receiving follow-up have better score of 65.6±21.4 than receiving chemotherapy. There were significance differences between two groups in role functioning, social functioning, fatigues, nausea/vomiting, pain, appetite loss, constipation, and global health status/quality of life. By Pearson’s correlation and stepwise regression, fatigues, dyspnea, nausea/vomiting, and social function were the predictors of HRQOL in receiving chemotherapy group; and, the breast cancer patients’ HRQOL may be worse than the nasopharyngeal cancer patients’. Besides, the HRQOL was better in patient with a grade 12 educational level than the colleges. In follow-up group, fatigues, emotional functioning, role functioning, cognitive functioning, and pain were the predictors of the HRQOL. In both groups, the HRQOL was positive correlated to function scales but negative to symptom scales and each single item, and there is no significant association with demographic factors. In casual variables, fatigue was the most significant factor in all domains. onclusion: HRQOL in patient receiving chemotherapy was worse than receiving follow-up. The factors influenced HRQOL were different between two groups as well as indicator variables were also influenced by different casual variables.
Subjects
breast cancer
lung cancer
nasopharyngeal cancer
chemotherapy
health-related quality of life
SDGs
Type
thesis
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