[Quality of life and family factors in patients with advanced stages of cancer].

PURPOSE: The prevalence of cancer in the Polish population is steadily increasing. The quality of life gains importance as the lifespan of patients with cancer is nowadays longer than ever before. The family and the life partner of the patient with a terminal illness (cancer included) is often the primary provider of care. It thus seemed interesting to investigate whether family factors and marital status determine the quality of life of patients receiving palliative treatment for various kinds of cancer.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

This questionnaire survey was done in 95 cancer patients (48 males, 47 females) and addressed the quality of life in three key aspects: physical symptoms, psychological symptoms, and daily activity. 50 patients (13 males, 37 females) were living alone (single, divorced, widowed) while the remaining 45 (33 males, 12 females) were married. The participants responded to a questionnaire concerned with social and demographic data and some aspects of the illness and to The Rotterdam Symptoms Checklist (RSCL). The Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) was used for marital couples.

CONCLUSION

Gender, children, religion, marital status and the quality of marital life had no effect on the quality of life of patients with advanced cancer. Younger patients and mothers with young children demonstrated more serious negative psychological symptoms requiring special care from a therapeutic team. Married patients, regardless of sex, reported a significantly higher quality of their marriage with higher coherency and agreement as compared with their partners.