Health Related Quality of Life and its Determinants in Cancer Patients in a Low-resource Setting

Objectives: This study investigated the health-related quality of life (QoL) in patients with various cancers attending cancer clinics at a tertiary hospital in South-East Nigeria and also determined the predictors of the various domain of QoL in these patients. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study conducted among 104 participants. The WHO QoL questionnaire–short version was administered to patients with various cancer types. Analysis of Variance was used to compare the domains of quality of life among the various cancer types. The Independent t-test was used to compare socio-demographic variables of gender and quality of life across the domains and multiple linear regression analysis was used to further test if identified socio-demographic and clinical characteristics significantly predicted quality of life in all four domains. Results: Of the 104 participants analysed, there was no significant association between individual cancers and overall quality of life (p = 0.67), and with individual cancers and satisfaction with health (p = 0.13). Occupation (p = 0.019), and the number of hospitalizations (p = 0.016) in the psychological domain; occupation (p = 0.032) and co-morbidities (p = 0.004) in the physical domain; age (p = 0.003) in the social domain, and level of education (p = 0.002) in the environmental domain predicted QoL in these patients. Conclusion: Socio-demographic variables of age, number of hospitalizations, presence of comorbidities, education and occupation were significant predictors of QoL among cancer patients in this study. However, there was no association between cancer types and quality of life.