Quality of Life in Ovarian Cancer: A Threat to Women Health in Pakistan

Abstract

Quality of life evaluation is a valuable measure in optimizing care of patients with ovarian cancer, but more research is required to make such evaluations suitably inexpensive and easy to perform so that they can be more fully incorporated into general oncologic practice. The present study was designed to assess the quality of life among ovarian cancer patients in Pakistan. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. A pre validated questionnaire, i.e. EORTC-QLQ-Ov-28 was self-administered to a sample of 383 women diagnosed with ovarian cancer selected using a convenience sampling technique. After data collection, data was cleaned, coded and entered in SPSS. Univariate analysis was performed to find out the differences among different variables. Univariate analysis was conducted comparing the symptom and functioning scales with clinical factors such as age, obesity, setting, hormonal issue, family history, and marital status. The results of the current study highlighted a significant difference (p ≥ 0.05) in the quality of life of women with respect to all of the indicators. The results of the present study concluded poor quality of life among women with ovarian cancer in Pakistan. The lowest quality of life score was observed in hormonal problems followed by peripheral neuropathy, whereas the attitude to disease or treatment was found positive. Cancer care should be extended beyond primary treatment to include long-term care that addresses physical, psychosocial, and emotional factors that influence survivor’s quality of life throughout their lifetime.