Relationship between individual and disease characteristics and quality of life of cancer patients in Indonesia

Abstract

Cancer and the effects of treatment can cause various effects on daily life and affect the quality of life of patients. This study aims to identify relationship between individual and disease characteristics and quality of life of cancer patients. The design of this study is a cross-sectional obtained through the consecutive sampling technique involving 110 cancer patients at one of the hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia. The instrument used was the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G). This study concluded that there was a significant relationship between age, education level, employment status, income status, cancer stage and pain with quality of life (p < α = 0.05). The results of this study show that the higher the cancer stage, the lower the patient's quality of life. Therefore, this study indicates the importance of early detection of cancer to improve the quality of life in cancer patients.