ROLE OF NUTRITIONAL STATUS ON QUALITY OF LIFE OF BREAST CANCER PATIENTS

Deepali Srivastava*, S. P. Singh, Ravi Shankar and H. S. Shukla

ABSTRACT

Breast cancer represents about 12% of all new cancer cases and 25% of all cancers in women worldwide. This study aimed to understand the role of nutritional status on quality of life of breast cancer patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Sir Sunderlal Hospital, BHU, Varanasi. Women aged ≥18 years, who were diagnosed breast cancer in the same hospital were invited to participate. Body weight, height, BMI (Body Mass Index) status & Quality of life using EORTC QLQ C-30 &Br-23 scale were evaluated. Descriptive statistics were used to assess the body mass index (BMI) and QoL profile of patients and nonparametric tests (Kruskal-Wallis Test) were employed for assessing the objective. Out of the total 172 respondents the mean age was 45.4±10.38 years. Majorities (90.7%) were Hindu, more than three-forth (80.8%) belonged to rural area and were married (83.7%). More than half (51.7%) were illiterate, 74.4% were home maker and 53.5% of the participants belong to lower class of socio-economic status. Regarding BMI, 12.2% of subjects were under nutrition, 29.6% normal or well nourished, 58.2% overweight and obese. BMI is positively correlated with global health status (r=0.15, p=0.037) of the subjects. The median underweight for global health status was 33, normal and overweight was 41. So, there is a significant association between global health status and nutritional status of study subjects. In conclusion a significant association between poorer nutritional status and impaired quality of life, in all domains, was confirmed in this study.

Keywords: Body mass index, EORTC QLQ scale, socio-economic status, global health status.