Impact of sociodemographic and clinical factors on quality of life of breast cancer survivors

Abstract

Survival rates of breast cancer patients have increased with current management protocols. Long-term consequences of therapies, socio-demographic background and clinical variables may impair their Quality of life (QOL). This study was aimed to evaluate the impact of socio-demographic and clinical factors on the QOL of breast cancer survivors receiving treatment at Teaching Hospital, Karapitiya. This cross sectional study was performed during July 2016 at oncology unit, Teaching Hospital, Karapitiya. WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was administered to 142 conveniently selected breast cancer survivors. Oneway ANOVA was applied to detect the impact of socio-demographic and clinical factors on different QOL domains. Among the breast cancer survivors, 32.4% had studied up to O/L and 61.3% were married. Majority (76.8%) was unemployed and 38.7% had a monthly income between Rs 10,000-30,000. The mean (SD) age of the sample was 55 (10.29) years. Among the survivors, 51.4% were living with family and 93% were Buddhists. In 31.7%, the condition was diagnosed during the 5th decade of life and 37.3% was in the second 6 months of their disease duration. In 54.2%, the cancer had spread to adjacent lymph nodes and 26.1 % had distant metastases. Mean (SD) ofphysical, psychological, social and environmental domains were 47.79 (11.20), 42.17 (15.19), 48.86 (15.68) and 51.83 (13.61) respectively. Age categories (P=0.03) had significant impact on psychological domain. Marital status (P=0.002), level of education (p=0.001) and monthly income (P=0.001) had significant impact on environmental domain. None of clinical factors had significant impact on any QOL domain (P>0.05).