Publication: Quality of life among female breast cancer patients in Kelantan
Date
2022
Authors
Pillai, Anil Kumar Sree Kumar
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Background: Breast cancer is known to be the leading cause of malignancy related deaths among women worldwide and it is well documented that breast cancer alone is responsible for approximately 30% of all newly diagnosed cancer cases in women. Due to the recent increase in incidence of breast cancer there is an increase of interest in assessing the quality of life of breast cancer patients. The goal of this study is to investigate the quality of life (QOL) scores among female breast cancer patients in Kelantan. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of breast cancer patients which was conducted between December 2021 and to March 2022.European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life self-administered Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ – C30) and its breast cancer supplementary measure (QLQ – BR23) were used to determine QOL scores. The QLQ - C30 and QLQ - BR23 questionnaires were used to assess to assess functional and symptoms scale. The QLQ – c30 questionnaire was also used to assess the Global Health Status. Systematic randomized sampling was used to recruit the respondents. Result: A total of 280 respondents were recruited with a response rate of 100%. It was noted that the mean age of the participants in this study were 52.9 years of age. Majority of the respondents fell into the age group between 50-59 years of age (32.1%) and were predominantly post-menopausal (64.1%). More than 80 % of the respondents were of Malay ethnicity (84.3%), followed by Chinese (11.8%), Siamese (2.1%), Indians (2.1%) and Others (0.7%). Patients who were classified as others were of Indonesian nationality. The majority of respondents reported that they were diagnosed within 2 years (45.4%), More than one-third of the patients were diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer (36.2%),followed by (31.2%) who were diagnosed at stage 4 and (27.2%) who were diagnosed at stage 3. Only a mere (5.4%) of patients were diagnosed at stage 1. The mean Global Health Score was 60.4. Summarizing the QLQ-C30 questionnaire, cognitive functioning has the highest mean score among the functioning scale (67.9,SD=31.09),while fatigue had the highest mean score in the symptom scale (53.8,SD=29.65).Looking at the QLQ-BR23 questionnaire ,sexual function had the highest mean score for the functional scales (77.1,SD=25.63) followed by body image (58.2,SD=30.08), while upset by hair loss had the highest mean score for the symptoms scale (64.4,SD=35.16) followed by arm symptoms (41.3,SD=32.17). Conclusion: Income and an early breast cancer (Stage 1 and 2) were found to be a significant predictor of Global Health Status (GHS). Quality of life which is reflected by GHS improves as employment increases and with an early diagnosis of breast cancer. Specific measures should be undertaken to increase awareness, education and early breast cancer screening to aid in early detection and prompt treatment of breast cancer
Description
Keywords
Breast Cancer , Quality of Life