Volume : 8, Issue : 3, March - 2019

Quality of life in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy in a tertiary care hospital: A cross-sectional study

Shivani Vaidya, Dr Sarita K Sharma

Abstract :

Cancer is the second most common cause of death after heart diseases and it accounted for 8.8 million deaths worldwide in 2015. Cancer affects a person’s quality of life (QOL) in all domains. The impairment in the QOL starts from the diagnosis of cancer and continues with the aggressive nature of treatment. Present cross-sectional study was carried out in 95 cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy at GMCH, Nagpur to assess their quality of life. Data was collected using predesigned and pretested questionnaire based on WHOQOL BREF Scale. Results: The overall QOL was good in 30 (31.59%), fair in 62 (65.26%) and poor in 3 (3.15%) study subjects. However, majority 39(41.05%) perceived their QOL as poor and 54(56.84%) were dissatisfied with their health. It was found that most compromised domains were physical and psychological and most preserved one was social relationship.