The quality of life of hospitalized and outpatient oncological patients

Abstract

The quality of life of sufferers of chronic and serious diseases is a phenomenon which has come to the attention of contemporary medicine, nursing and other supporting professionals working with cancer patients. This research set out to determine whether there is a difference in the self-perception of the quality of life of hospitalized cancer patients and cancer outpatients. This study deals with the comparison of quality of life in 128 outpatient and hospitalized cancer patients in the curative stage of cancer. The QLACS (Quality of Life in Adult Cancer Survivors) “How do I live with the disease?” questionnaire was used in the survey. To ascertain the total value of the quality of life we used scoring with a potential spread of responses from 1 to 7 in the QLACS questionnaire. Using this scale, various items in the questionnaire measured the level of each frequency of problems (1 = never, 7 = always). The resulting value of quality of life of the patient was higher when the final score was lower. A significance level of 0.005 in the resulting value of quality of life (sig. = 0.000) in the study group of patients confirmed the hypothesis, which assumed that the quality of life of hospitalized cancer patients is significantly lower than the quality of life of cancer outpatients. The quality of life of hospitalized cancer patients is significantly lower than the quality of life of cancer outpatients (sig. = 0.000) since admission to hospital with all the accompanying negative factors for the patient – the separation from family and loved ones, unfamiliar environment, undergoing often difficult and invasive diagnostic or therapeutic procedures, which amongst others, are very stressful for the patient, with a potentially negative impact on the patient's quality of life.