Association between quality of life and palliative care at the cancer patients

Context: Patients with cancer experience great pain and stress. Many studies show that palliative care has a positive effect on many clinical outcomes involving symptom distress, quality of life, satisfaction, and survival. Aims: This study aimed to survey the association between quality of life and palliative care in cancer patients. Setting and Design: This was a descriptive correlational study conducted from February 2019 to August 2019 on 399 patients diagnosed with cancer recruited from seven universities of medical sciences. Materials and Methods: The sample size consisted of 97 cancer patients who had received palliative care and 302 cancer patients who did not receive palliative care. The convenience sampling method was used. The World Health Organization quality of life (QOL)-BREF questionnaire was used for data collection. Statistical Analysis Used: Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 22. Data were described with mean, standard deviation, and frequency and analyzed using Mann–Whitney, K-S test. A generalized linear regression model was used in this study. Results: The mean score of total QoL in patients who did not receive palliative care was higher than those who received (51.038 ± 23.771 vs. 48.195 ± 27.361), and this difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). A statistically significant association was observed between palliative care and psychological and environmental health, total QoL, education, employment and income status (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The utilization of palliative care was associated with improved psychological health and environmental health.