Assessment of quality of life of cancer patients in a tertiary care hospital of South India

Background: Quality of Life (QOL) measures have now become a vital part of health outcome appraisal and an effective way of capturing the personal and social context of patients.
Aim: To assess the QOL of cancer patients by using a validated questionnaire.
Settings and Design: A prospective study in the medical oncology clinic of a tertiary care hospital of South India.
Materials and Methods: Patients receiving chemotherapy for different types of cancer were subjected to a validated questionnaire and their responses to the factors of the questionnaire were scored and analyzed. A Chi-square test was performed to assess the effect of age and type of cancer on the QOL of patients. Pearson′s correlation was done to assess the factors that had greater influence on the QOL.
Results: A total of 32 (15 males; 17 females) patients were included and majority were in the age range of 61-80 years. Eleven types of cancer were identified. About 56% of the patients were assessed to have average QOL and 28% had below average QOL, 9% had above average, and 2 (6.25%) had significantly high QOL. The overall mean QOL score of the study population was 122.38 ± 13.86. Factors 1 (psychological well-being), 2 (self-adequacy), 3 (physical wellbeing), 4 (confidence in self-ability), 6 (pain), 7 (mobility), and 8 (optimism and belief) had significant influence on the QOL, while factors 5 (external support), 9 (interpersonal relationship), and 10 (self-sufficiency and independence) did not have a significant effect on QOL. Age (P=0.396) and type of cancer (P=0.371) did not have a significant effect on the QOL.
Conclusion: The study showed that 80% of the total study population reported to have average and below average QOL, suggesting that an increasing importance is given to the incorporation of Quality of Life as an outcome, in addition to other clinical endpoints.