Socio-Demography and Medical History as Predictors of Health-Related Quality of Life of Breast Cancer Survivors

Abstract

Background: Even after completion of conventional treatment, breast cancer survivors continue to exhibit a variety of psychological and physical symptoms, affecting their quality of life. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between socio-demography, medical characteristics and health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) of a sample of breast cancer survivors in Malaysia. Materials and Methods: This pilot cross-sectional survey was conducted among breast cancer survivors (n=40) who were members of Breast Cancer Support Group Centre Johor Bahru. A validated self-administered questionnaire was used to identify the relationships between socio-demography, medical characteristics and HR-QOL of the participants. Results: Living with family and completion of treatment were significant predictive factors of self-rated QOL, while living with family and ever giving birth significantly predicted satisfaction with health and physical health. Psychological health had moderate correlations with number of children and early cancer stage. Survivors' higher personal income (>MYR4,500) was the only significant predictor of social relationship, while age, income more than MYR4,500 and giving birth significantly predicted environment domain score. Conclusions: The findings suggested the survivors coped better in all four HR-QOL domains if they were married, lived with family, had children and were employed.

Quality of Life among Moroccan Women Undergoing Treatment of Breast Cancer

“…Our outcomes are similar to those reported by Chie et al in showing that no statistically significant differences between different clinical stages of breast cancer and QOL [45]. It has been suggested that the diagnosis of breast cancer is so stressful that it may result in a pattern of psychological morbidity for women in early stages that is similar to that experienced by women with more advanced disease [9].…”

“…In addition, patients are at risk of experiencing anxiety and depression [8]. Determinants such as disease stage, type of treatment and socio-demographic characteristics have been studied extensively and researchers have demonstrated a strong association between these factors and QOL of patients [1,9].…”

Construct Validity and Reliability of Indonesian Version of RAND SF-36 Quality of Life Questionnaire in Breast Cancer Patients

“…The mean age of participants was 48 years with 24year-old as the youngest and 69-year-old as the oldest participant. The mean age was similar to studies in Korea and India with a mean age of 47.7 and 47.6 years old, respectively [10,11]. Most of the participants were on stage II (54.8%) and almost all of the participants (84.2%) already completed the treatment series (surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy).…”

Quality of Life of Women with Breast Cancer and Socio-Demographic Factors

“…The results presented by Ramadas et al, (2015) indicated that QOL of women diagnosed with breast cancer was higher in those respondents who were married and lived with their family. In these studies, it was found that women who did not have children significantly worse in the psychological area compared to patients with children.…”