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Background: Breast cancer is certainly the commonest forms of cancers among women in Ethiopia. For a long time the focus has been on clinical management of cancers but now Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) is emerging as an important health outcome which requires to be incorporated in the holistic management of patients. Evaluating the HRQOL, is used to identify cancer patients in need of clinical attention and to evaluate interventions for cancer patients and lead to better outcome. There were no studies conducted in Ethiopia that have investigated HRQOL issues among breast cancer survivors. Objective: To assess the level of health related quality of life and to identify associate factors among women breast cancer survivors at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Refereal Hospital, Addis Ababa. Methods: The study was hospital based cross-sectional research involving 360 breast cancer survivors from March 20 to June 30, 2015. The translated to Amharic version of European organization for research and treatment of cancer quality of life questionnaire QLQ-C30 (Quality of Life Questionnaire-Cancer 30) and QLQ-BR23 (Quality of Life Questionnaire- Breast Cancer 23) were used to measure the health related quality of life. The data entered, cleaned and analyzed by using SPSS 20 version software. Multiple binary logistic analysis was performed to examine the effect of independent variables on HRQOL further more analysis of variance (ANOVAs) and t-test was performed to examine the relationship between independent variables and functional and symptom scales. Results: Overall, 360 respondents participated in this study making the response rate at 94.48% percent. The mean score for HRQOL was 60.53. For bivariate analysis age, marital status, educational status, average monthly income, medical services status, types of anti cancer treatment, co-morbidity and cancer stage were associated with HRQOL. Whereas age, lower average monthly income (≤ 600 ETB), time since diagnosis, co-morbidity and current cancer stage remained significant in multivariate analysis. In all functional and symptom scales of the QLQ C30 and QLQ 30 except sexual functioning, sexual enjoyment and upset by hair loss were significantly associated with HRQOL.
Conclusion: The study revealed that the mean health related quality of life among breast cancer patients were 60.5 and was comparable with the international findings. Significant determinant of health related quality of life include; age, low monthly income, high year of diagnosis, co-morbidity and being stage four and all functional and symptom scale variables except sexual functioning, sexual enjoyment and upset by hair loss. Based on the findings of the study it is important to prioritize such groups of breast cancer survivors for targeted programs to improve the health related quality of life and contribute for better out come |
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