Geriya Disha, Dave Viral
Department of Community Medicine, Dr. M. K. Shah Medical College and Research Centre, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
Department of Community Medicine, GCS Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
Indian J Community Med. 2024 Jan-Feb;49(1):115-119. doi: 10.4103/ijcm.ijcm_88_23. Epub 2024 Jan 12.
Cancer has been the leading cause of death worldwide, and palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life (QoL) of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness. Hospice care helps patients and their family to cope with the change from treating the cancer to living life as fully as possible through their final days. This study aimed to (1) assess the sociodemographic and clinical profile of terminally ill cancer patients, (2) assess the QoL among terminally ill cancer patients receiving palliative care, and (3) study various determinants affecting their QoL.
A cross-sectional study was conducted among terminally ill cancer patients receiving palliative care at the Hospice Centre, Community Oncology Centre, Ahmedabad. Based on previous years' admission data, a sample size of 360 was taken. Patients who are seriously ill up to the extent that they were unable to respond and had a previous positive history of psychiatric illness before the diagnosis of cancer were excluded. Institutional ethical committee (IEC) permission was obtained before the study. Statistical analysis was performed using the Chi-square test in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software.
The mean age of participants was 48.1 ± 13.0 years. The gender distribution of participants was males and females (226 (62.8%) and 134 (37.2%)), respectively. On studying, the involvement of various anatomical sites as "primary site of cancer" revealed that head and neck carcinoma had the highest (63.3%) involvement and hematological cancer had the lowest (0.6%) involvement. Of total, 62% of participants had "below-average QoL," followed by 34.9% of participants having "significantly poor QoL." There was a significant association between different age groups, time lag in cancer diagnosis, and treatment initiation and QoL.
Spearman's rank correlations between the majority of factors fell in "low partially positive" category except for the physical well-being (factor 2) and psychosocial well-being (factor 3) with optimism and belief (factor 7), where they were in "low partially negative" category.
癌症一直是全球主要的死亡原因，姑息治疗是一种改善面临危及生命疾病相关问题的患者及其家属生活质量（QoL）的方法。临终关怀帮助患者及其家人应对从治疗癌症到在生命的最后日子里尽可能充实地生活的转变。本研究旨在：（1）评估晚期癌症患者的社会人口学和临床特征；（2）评估接受姑息治疗的晚期癌症患者的生活质量；（3）研究影响其生活质量的各种决定因素。
在艾哈迈达巴德社区肿瘤中心临终关怀中心对接受姑息治疗的晚期癌症患者进行了一项横断面研究。根据前几年的入院数据，选取了360名样本。病情严重到无法做出回应且在癌症诊断前有精神疾病阳性病史的患者被排除。研究前获得了机构伦理委员会（IEC）的许可。使用社会科学统计软件包（SPSS）中的卡方检验进行统计分析。
参与者的平均年龄为48.1±13.0岁。参与者的性别分布分别为男性和女性（226名（62.8%）和134名（37.2%））。在研究各种解剖部位作为“癌症原发部位”的受累情况时发现，头颈癌的受累率最高（63.3%），血液系统癌症的受累率最低（0.6%）。总体而言，62%的参与者“生活质量低于平均水平”，其次是34.9%的参与者“生活质量极差”。不同年龄组、癌症诊断和治疗开始的时间间隔与生活质量之间存在显著关联。
除了身体健康（因素2）和心理社会健康（因素3）与乐观和信念（因素7）之间的斯皮尔曼等级相关性处于“低部分负相关”类别外，大多数因素之间的斯皮尔曼等级相关性都处于“低部分正相关”类别。
