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BACKGROUND: The population of gynaecological cancer survivors is growing, yet little is known about the effects of cancer and treatment on socioeconomic conditions well beyond the completion of therapy. The aim of this study was to investigate the socioeconomic conditions in long-term survivors of gynaecological cancer compared with a representative group of women from the general population. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study comprises women aged 32-75 residing in central part of Norway and who were treated as primary cases of gynaecological cancer at the University Hospital in Trondheim, Norway (n=160), and a control group from the general population (n=493). All analyses were done by chi(2) test and logistic regression. RESULTS: Gynaecological cancer survivors scored lower on a Socioeconomic Condition Index than the control group. They had on the average a complete remission period of 12 years. Compared with the control group, they were more often disabled (p<0.01) and had lower annual household income (p<0.01). No difference was detected between the groups in ability to pay bills. More cases than controls had experienced problems assigning personal insurance (p<0.03). CONCLUSION: Long-term gynaecological cancer survivors lived under poorer socioeconomic conditions, were more often disabled and had lower annual household income than the women in the control group, whereas no difference in ability to pay bills were found between the groups. In spite of poorer socioeconomic conditions, the gynaecological cancer survivors seem to adapt well to their financial situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The population of gynaecological cancer survivors is growing. However, there is little knowledge of the long-term quality of life among these former patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term quality of life in women treated successfully for gynaecological cancer and a control group of representative women selected from the general population., Material and Methods: The study comprised women aged 30-75 years residing in the central part of Norway. Cases were 319 gynaecological cancer survivors treated at St Olav's Hospital Trondheim, Norway, between 1987 and 1996, whereas 1276 age-matched women selected at random from the general population served as controls. The study population was identified and the respondents were invited to answer a postal questionnaire. After one reminder, the response rate was 55% (176/319) and 41% (521/1276) for cases and controls, respectively. Sixteen cases and 28 controls had incomplete responses to most questions and were excluded from the analyses. Eligible for the final analyses were 160 cases and 493 controls. Ferrans & Powers' Quality of Life Index (QLI) was used. All analyses were performed in SPSS version 13.0 with chi-square (categorical variables) and Mann-Whitney (continuous variables) tests. p