Assessment of Quality of Life Among Cancer Patients in A Tertiary Care Hospital at Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh

Abstract Introduction: Cancer is the second most common cause of deaths worldwide. In India, it is a major health problem and the disease burden is escalating every year. The Quality of life (QOL) can be attributed to the symptoms associated with cancer which impacts their overall well-being. Improvement in QOL is the need of the hour to strengthen and support cancer patients. Objectives · To assess the QOL among the cancer patients. · To find the association between the QOL of cancer patients with their socio-demographic and disease related variables. Methodology: A cross sectional, analytical study was conducted among 100 cancer patients selected by purposive sampling technique in a tertiary care hospital during January to March 2024. Data was collected by using Validated structured questionnaire which is a 41 item questionnaire with general, physical, psychological, cognitive, emotional well-being domains which was given an overall QOL score (min 41 & max176) with a Likert scale scoring. Prior approval from Institutional Ethics Committee was obtained. Data was analysed using SPSS software version 21. Results: Among the study subjects, 30% were males and 70% were females, 26% belonged to 51-60yrs of age group, 38% of them were in stage III and currently receiving chemotherapy radiotherapy. The mean QOL score was 110.23 ± 10.02. Association between QOL score and demographic and disease related variables has showed that age, gender and stage of cancer are statistically significant with p values (0.005,0.03, 0.035) respectively. Conclusion: The mean QOL score was found to be very low which the key areas to address are in the present scenario.