FACTORS AFFECTING THE HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE IN LUNG CANCER PATIENTS: MEASURED BY EORTC QLQ-C30 QLQ-LC13

Objective: The aims of this cross-sectional descriptive study were to evaluate the quality of life (QoL) of the lung cancer patients and to investigate differences in QoL with respect to general and medical characteristics. Methods: Structured questionnaires (EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-LC13) were used among 106 consecutive lung cancer patients for data collection during 1 Jan 2002 to 31 Dec 2002. The t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare differences of QoL between the factors at a 5% level of significance. Results: The study revealed that the quality of life of the lung cancer patients were worse than reference value. The young, male and married patient groups had better QoL. Patients with lower education or income had worse QoL. Small cell lung cancer patients reported poorer QoL than non-small cell lung cancer patients. The quality of life in patients at late stage or with metastasis had worse QoL. The treatments could worsen the quality of life. When the outcomes of the four treatments were compared, the surgery group displayed the best quality of life and the combined treatment group displayed the worst quality of life. Conclusion: The results of the present study showed important ramifications for clinicians, researchers and policy-makers.