Impact of Cancer Related Fatigue on Health Related Quality of Life in Cancer Survivors

Abstract

Background: Cancer related fatigue is multidimensional and has a negative impact on physical, mental, emotional and social health. Most of the time cancer related fatigue is under-reported by patients and under treated by clinicians, and it may hamper the quality of life in cancer survivors. This study focusses on assessing the impact of fatigue on health related quality of life in cancer survivors. Objective: To find the impact of cancer related fatigue on health related quality of life in cancer survivors. Material and Methodology: In this cross sectional study, 66 cancer survivors were enrolled between the age group of 40 and 70, who completed treatment 3 months prior to the study and scoring of fatigue between 3 and 10 in rate of perceived exertion scale. Thus SF-36 questionnaire was used to determine the impact. Result: According to this study there is a decline of 61.81% in general health, 57.121% in physical functioning, 44.88% in role physical, 41.41% in role emotional, 40.57% in social functioning, 40.75% in mental health, 38.75% in vitality and 37.61% in pain. This indicates an overall decline in the quality of life of the cancer survivors which sums up to 51.46% with P value <0.0001, which considered extremely significant. Conclusion: Many cancer survivors experienced moderate to severe fatigue which affects their health related quality of life. There is need to develop interventions for effective management of cancer related fatigue to improve quality of life.