Quality of Life and Work Limitation Among Survivors of Breast Cancer at Zagazig University Hospitals, Egypt

Abstract

Introduction:The number of breast cancer survivors is increasing worldwide in the labor market. The average age of Egyptian women who have breast cancer is significantly younger than the average age of American and European women. Survivors of breast cancer encounter stressful experience that affect their quality of life (QOL) and work productivity. Aim of work: To assess the quality of life (QOL) and work limitations among survivors of breast cancer and to determine the medical and socio-demographic predictors of both QOL and work limitations among the studied sample. Materials and Methods: A total of 134 survivors of breast cancer attending the Oncology and Nuclear Medicine outpatient clinics in Zagazig University Hospital were studied through the EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ -BR23 (the Arabic versions) and a questionnaire based upon the English version of the Work Limitations Questionnaire. Results: The studied participants mean age was 48.32±8.68, and 68.66% of them work for more than forty hours per week. The studied females reported low mean scores of EROTC QLQ -C30 and BR-23 scales. The EROTC global QOL scores were significantly affected by: treatment type, years since cancer diagnosis, disease stage II and III, and working hours per week. The percentage of work productivity loss was 8.3% and it was significantly affected by: treatment type, years since cancer diagnosis, years since completing primary cancer treatment, and disease stage II and III. Conclusion: Working women with breast cancer in Egypt experience low scores of quality of life and need more attention and support programs to cope with their health status, treatment type, and work requirements.

Effect of peer support intervention on anxiety, depression and quality of life among female breast cancer patients on chemotherapy in Yangon, Myanmar: randomized controlled trial

“…The results of this study were comparable to the findings of the previously cited studies done in Morocco (El Fakir et al, 2016) and in Egypt (RAM et al, 2018) where cognitive functioning and social functioning were found to be the highest scores and role functioning and emotional functioning revealed lowest scores.…”

“…Similar findings were found in the previously quoted cross-sectional study done in Egypt (RAM et al, 2018), a cross-sectional study in Croatia among 153 breast cancer patients (Separovic et al, 2019) and 2 cross-sectional studies among breast cancer patients in Saudi Arabia with the sample size of 310 and 88 respectively (Imran et al, 2019, Nageeti et al, 2019 where the highest scores were found in insomnia, fatigue and pain, while the lowest scores were in diarrhea and, nausea and vomiting.…”

“…Questionnaire At baseline, this study found that the global health status/QOL of all participants was fair with a mean score of 61.8 ± 20.1. It was comparable to the reference value of 61.8 ± 24.6 which was reported in a 49 countries study by the EORTC group (Scott et al, 2008), but lower than the scores in previous Myanmar study (Htet, 2016) and Morocco study (El Fakir et al, 2016) (66.1 ± 21.2 and 68.5 ± 18.5 respectively), and higher than in Egypt (RAM et al, 2018) and Iran (Shafaie et al, 2019b) studies (51.9 ± 25.7 and 59.1 ± 17.4 respectively).…”

“…In the cross-sectional study in Morocco (El Fakir et al, 2016) in which 1463 breast cancer patients participated, participants received surgery only or chemotherapy only or combination therapies. In the cross-sectional study in Egypt (RAM et al, 2018) where 181 breast cancer patients participated, surgery only or radiation only or combination therapies were the treatments that the patients received. In the cross-sectional descriptive study in Iran (Shafaie et al, 2019a) where 166 women breast cancer patients took part, they were receiving chemotherapy only or combination therapies.…”