Quality of life in old people with and without cancer.
Author
Summary, in English
The aim was to investigate the influence of age and gender on quality of life (QoL), complaints, and the presence and nature of self-reported diseases in persons aged 75 and older with cancer (n = 150), compared to a matched group without cancer (n = 138). A second aim was to investigate factors associated with poor QoL in people aged 75 and older. QoL was measured with Short Form (SF-12) and European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-30). The study showed that the cancer group had lower (poorer) scores in different domains of QoL, more complaints, and more self-reported diseases than the group without cancer. In both groups, oldest old persons had more complaints than the youngest old. The cancer group had significantly more complaints than the noncancer group. In the youngest old, the cancer group had significantly more complaints than the comparison group. Women with cancer reported the poorest QoL compared to men with cancer and women without cancer. Receiving help for daily living from others and degree of complaints were associated with poor QoL for both the physical and mental component scores (PCS, MCS) of the SF-12. Thus, caregivers should be aware that the most vulnerable cancer patients are women, and that the complaints by cancer patients have implications for QoL especially among the youngest old.
Department/s
Publishing year
2004
Language
English
Pages
1067-1080
Publication/Series
Quality of Life Research
Volume
13
Issue
6
Links
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Springer
Topic
- Nursing
Keywords
- Matched-Pair Analysis
- Male
- Non-U.S. Gov't
- Sweden: epidemiology
- 80 and over
- Case-Control Studies
- Comorbidity
- Female
- Human
- Nonparametric
- Support
- Neoplasms: complications
- Neoplasms: physiopathology
- Neoplasms: psychology
- Quality of Life
- Sex Factors
- Sickness Impact Profile
- Socioeconomic Factors
- Statistics
- Activities of Daily Living
- Age Factors
- Aged
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1573-2649