Quality of life in newly diagnosed cancer patients

The aim of this study was to examine which domains of quality of life are m ost strongly affected in patients with newly diagnosed cancer, and to exami ne if quality of life was related to gender, age, educational level, cohabi tation, time since diagnosis, treatment or type of cancer in these patients . Ferrans and Powers quality of Life Index and the Cancer Rehabilitation Ev aluation System, short form, were completed by 131 newly diagnosed Norwegia n adult cancer patients. The patients had different cancer diagnoses, with breast cancer being the most common type. None of them were terminally ill, and 80% had been diagnosed within the last 6 months. The patients turned o ut to be satisfied with their lives, especially with the family and marital domains. They were least satisfied with health, functioning and sex life. Analyses of variance and multiple regression analysis were conducted to exa mine the impact on quality of life of cohabiting, age, gender, educational level, cancer diagnosis, treatment and time since diagnosis. Those cohabiti ng had significantly higher quality of life compared with those living alon e. In contrast the younger group (19-39 years) living alone had significant ly lower quality of lifo than the older groups living alone. Although age w as only significantly associated with quality of life in one sub-scale, the elderly people reported their quality of life to be better in almost all s ub-scales. Time since diagnosis tvas not associated with quality of life, w hile treatment was associated with quality of life as measured by Ferrans a nd Powers quality of Life Index. Gender and educational level wore only ass ociated with one or two domains in quality of life, respectively.