Comparison of Quality of Life of Cancer Patients on Palliative Care in Hospice Centers Versus at Home

Abstract

Effective delivery of palliative care can improve the quality of life of patients and their families facing challenges associated with life-threatening illnesses like cancers. The setting of care is also an important factor that influence the quality of life of cancer patients on palliative care. This was a cross-sectional study with descriptive and analytical components conducted to describe and compare the quality of life of cancer patients on palliative care in hospice centers and at home. Component one was to describe the quality of life of cancer patients on palliative care in hospice centers and at home. In the component two, the quality of life of cancer patients in those two settings were compared. For the component one, 58 patients were included from the hospice setting while 76 patients were included from home setting. For the component two 54 patients were included from each group. Quality of life was determined by using the validated quality of life assessment tool for cancer patients named 'EORTC QLQ-C30'. Descriptive and analytical statistics were used after the data was analyzed using SPSS for Windows. Significance level was set at 0.05. In hospice setting physical functioning score was 45.1 and at home setting it was 51.9. In hospice setting cognitive score mean was 54 and at home setting it was 76.5. At home setting role, emotional, cognitive and social functioning score were higher than hospice setting. At home setting, the mean global health status/QoL score is comparatively higher than the mean for hospice setting. This study revealed that there was a statistically significant difference of quality of life between cancer patients on palliative care in hospice centers compared to the home setting, with a higher quality of life among the patients taken care at home.