Abstract
PurposeQuality of life (QoL) has been the subject of increasing interest in oncology. Most examinations of QoL have focused on health-related QoL, while other factors often remain unconsidered. Moreover, QoL questionnaires implicitly assume that the subjective importance of the various QoL domains is identical from one patient to the next. The aim of this study was to analyze QoL in a broader sense, considering the subjective importance of the QoL components.MethodsA sample of 173 male urologic patients was surveyed twice: once while hospitalized (t1) and once again 3 months later (t2). Patients completed the Questions on Life Satisfaction questionnaire (FLZ-M), which includes satisfaction and importance ratings for eight dimensions of QoL. A control group was taken from the general population (n = 477).ResultsHealth was the most important QoL dimension for both the patient and the general population groups. While satisfaction with health was low in the patient group, the satisfaction ratings of the other seven domains were higher in the patient group than in the general population. The satisfaction with the domain partnership/sexuality showed a significant decline from t1 to t2. Multiple regression analyses showed that the domains health and income contributed most strongly to the global QoL score at t2 in the patient group.ConclusionHealth is not the only relevant category when assessing QoL in cancer patients; social relationships and finances are pertinent as well. Importance ratings contribute to a better understanding of the relevance of the QoL dimensions for the patients.
Highlights
Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among men, with about 1.3 million new cases being diagnosed annually worldwide [1]
While the impact of urologic cancer on health-related Quality of life (QoL) has been examined in multiple studies, the aim of the work presented here was to test whether other QoL domains are affected by the disease and whether the subjective importance ratings of various QoL dimensions differ between urologic cancer patients and the general population
Health is one of the several QoL dimensions included in our analyses; this allows us to investigate the relevance of health in relation to other areas of QoL
Summary
Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among men, with about 1.3 million new cases being diagnosed annually worldwide [1]. Multiple studies have been performed to investigate QoL [3,4,5,6] and mental health [7,8,9] in urologic cancer patients and survivors. Most studies found that, compared with other cancer types, QoL among prostate. Studies on QoL among cancer patients have historically focused mainly on health-related QoL [3, 17]. QoL is a broader concept that includes factors such as professional life, family life, leisure activities, and finances. Factors like these need to be considered as well when evaluating cancer patients’ QoL and developing supportive services
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