Quality of Life and Symptom Control in Patients with Cancer.

Objective: The aim of this cross-sectional study was designed in order to determine quality of life and symptoms in patients with cancer and examine the influencing factors. Methods: The sample of the study was performed with voluntary attendance of cancer patients (n=85) by using Survey form, EQ-5D Quality of Life Scale, Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS). Results: This study detected that female patients experienced more nausea than male patients statistically (p<0.05). Patients with chronic health problems had worse symptoms of fatigue, feeling sad, anxiety, lack of appetite, not feeling well and shortness of breath statistically (p<0.05). A negative significant relationship was found between quality of life scores of the patients and clinical diagnosis time and chemotherapy cure numbers (p<0.05). As clinical diagnosis time/chemotherapy cure number of patients with cancer increased, quality of life worsened. A positive significant relationship was found between quality of life scores of the patients and pain, fatigue, nausea, feeling sad, anxiety, insomnia, lack of appetite, not feeling well, shortness of breath, sores in the mouth and their scores (p<0.05). As the symptoms of patients with cancer worsened, quality of life decreased, as well. Conclusions: In line with the results of this study, we suggested to assess symptoms and quality of life and to prevent possible symptoms with evidence based nursing practices by taking into consideration female gender, the status of co-existing chronic disease, clinical diagnosis time, cure number, etc. for those patients with cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]