ABSTRACT
Background: Lung cancer is the commonest cancer worldwide considering its incidence and mortality. It not only affects the life of the patient, but also has significant impact on the life of the primary caregivers too. The study aimed to assess the Quality of Life (QOL) among caregivers of lung cancer patients and to find out its determinants.Methods: It was an institution based cross-sectional study conducted in a tertiary care center of Kolkata with the help of a predesigned, pretested, structured, standardized questionnaire where 210 patient-caregiver dyads were included by complete enumeration method to assess quality of life of the caregivers and its possible predictors.Results: Half of the caregivers experienced poor quality of life (overall QOL score ≤ median score) as assessed by QOLLTI-F (Quality of Life in Life-Threatening Illness-Family Carer Version). Multivariate analyses suggested that gender, religion, area of residence, financial burden, stage and type of lung carcinoma, disability and depression among the patients were important determinants of quality of life of the caregivers.Conclusions: Comprehensive care covering different domains like financial risk protection, psycho-social assistance through governmental and also different non-governmental initiatives, self-help groups are the needs of the hour to address this important public health issue as caregiver’s life is equally important as that of the patient and they are highly interdependent.
ABSTRACT
Background: Lung cancer is one of the commonest cancer worldwide and also in India. Being a chronic disease, it is expected to result in disability during the course of the illness. Disability in turn results in deterioration of mental health and leads to poor quality of life. The present study intended to assess the degree of disability among lung cancer patients and to find out the covariates of the same.Methods: An institution based cross-sectional study had been conducted over a period of six months among lung cancer patients attending a tertiary care centre. Exit interview had been conducted with a pretested schedule after taking informed consent. Disability had been assessed by WHO Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0). Data were entered and analysed in SPSS 20.0 version.Results: A total of 210 patients were recruited in this study. Half of the study population were suffering from higher level of disability. Multivariate analysis revealed degree of disability was higher among the patients who were financially dependent to others, had advanced stage of the disease and when time since diagnosis was more than one month.Conclusions: Holistic approach needs to be taken up to address this alarming issue of disability and its consequences among lung cancer patients. The approach should include various rehabilitative measures, social security schemes by the government and active involvement of non-governmental organisations.
ABSTRACT
Summary: Gallbladder tuberculosis is an extremely rare disorder even in endemic region. It often mimics gallbladder malignancy as both of them share some common presentations. This entity is very rarely diagnosed pre-operatively as neither clinical features nor radiology are pathognomonic of gallbladder tuberculosis. The case reported here presented as chronic calculous cholecystitis with mass at gallbladder neck. Patient underwent laparotomy with suspicion of gallbladder carcinoma, which was eventually diagnosed as a case of gallbladder TB following histopathological examination of the resected specimen. He also had pulmonary TB in association and was completely cured with short course antitubercular chemotherapy.