Cancer is one of the leading cause s of mortality and morbidity among the non-communicable diseases in South Asian countries, such as India. The subcontinent of South Asia hosts up to 25% of the total world population. Though separated by the geographical boundaries, the South Asian countries still share similar food habits, culture as well as life styles, resulting in prevalence of similar risk factors for cancer (Moore et al., 2010).Thus, despite massive diversity across the region, there are significant similarities among these counties in terms of cancer incidence and prevalence as well as
Objectives: Family Caregivers (FCs) of cancer patients often suffer from impaired quality of life (QOL) due to stress
arising from the responsibility of care giving. Thus, in this study we assessed family caregivers (FCs) quality of life and its
association with demographic variables during inpatient palliative care (IPC) of their advanced cancer patients.
Material and Methods: 211 FCs of advanced cancer patients were assessed using either English or Telugu versions of the Caregiver Quality of
Life Cancer (CQOLC) index scales to evaluate their QOL. We used descriptive and correlation analyses to obtain statistical results..
Results: The summative mean CQOLC score was 54.42+/- 19.7. Statistically signicant higher scores were observed for FCs who reside in rural
regions (p=0.27) and those who belong to Below poverty line (BPL) families (p=0.035) suggesting poor quality of life among these groups. High
CQOLC score was noticed for socially backward (OBC's, SC and ST castes) communities, but statistically not signicant (p=0.210).
Conclusion: FCs from rural regions and lower income groups experience poor QOL. Regular assessment, resource support and specialist care are
needed for improving FCs quality of life.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.