Abstract
The aim of this study was to describe the charac- teristics in Quality of Life (QoL) and hope in eld- erly people newly diagnosed with cancer, and to compare the results for those who survived six months after diagnosis with those who did not. The design of the study was a quantitative study in- cluding drop-out analysis. Data were collected pro- spectively from a group of 101 older people with cancer. The core questionnaire EORTC QLQ-C30 was used to measure QoL and Nowotny's Hope Scale (NHS) was employed to measure hope. Par- ticipants who died within six months of diagnosis had significantly lower QoL and had more com- plaints about symptoms compared to those who survived. However, hope did not differ significantly between those who died and those who survived. Despite lower QoL score among those who died they were able to deal with their difficult situation and maintain hope in late life. This capacity seems to be an important component of hope in the elderly; thus it is essential to strengthen hope.
Highlights
The improvement and maintenance of Quality of Life (QoL) are a major goal of cancer care for older people, especially under conditions of limited improvement of survival and at the price of significant complications [1]
A dropout analysis was performed and results from this analysis will be presented in this paper with focus on the difference in QoL and hope between those elderly people newly diagnosed with cancer who survived for six months after the diagnosis and those who did not
The global QoL seemed to be equal and without significant difference in the two groups we investigated, the result underlines the need for recognition of QoL by health care professionals immediately on diagnosis in order to counteract the serious reduction in QoL that could occur in the early stages of cancer in the elderly
Summary
The improvement and maintenance of QoL are a major goal of cancer care for older people, especially under conditions of limited improvement of survival and at the price of significant complications [1]. According to Nowotny [7] the aspect of life expectancy may not necessarily be important because seriously ill people speculate less on cure or extra life span and more on what is possible and realistic in the situation This is in line with Benzein [3] who identified hope in healthy people as a process linked to meaning in life. Hope is a notion that contains the number of years left to live, and the meaning of life, which is in line with the findings of Nowotny [7] This issue may be important for the elderly person with cancer due to limited life expectancy, regardless of the outcome of the disease trajectory
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