ABSTRACT
Objective: To compare the Quality of Life [QOL] of cancer patients at different chemotherapy [CT] cycles
Study Design: Cross sectional analytical
Place and Duration of Study: Tertiary Care Hospital, Rawalpindi
Material and Methods: Study was conducted in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Rawalpindi. Non-probability purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample of 50 cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. The patients were grouped in two on the basis of number of chemotherapy cycles, those having 2 CT cycles. After taking informed consent the data was collected using the European Quality of Life Questionnaire [EORTC QLQ-C30] to measure QOL in the patients. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 21. Baseline distinctiveness [demographic and HRQOL] was summarized by descriptive statistics. Mean and standard deviation of individual items in the two scales was calculated in two groups and statistical inference was drawn using Independent T test between the two groups, p value of
Results: The study sample comprised of 31 males and 19 females. Mean age of participants was 43.88 +/- 12.72 [Range 18-70] with the most common age group being 41-50 years. There was a male preponderance [63%] and majority 36% were doing house hold work. Among the 50 subjects, 32% were suffering from lung carcinoma, 26% had genitourinary cancer, 24% had cancer of the oral cavity while 18% had carcinoma breast. As per the QOL scoring, in the Global Health Scale [GHS] the four items of symptom scale that is fatigue [p=0.02], nausea [p=0.00], pain [p=0.01] and appetite loss [0.03] attained a significant difference. Nevertheless, a significant difference was found between the level of QOL in patients with 2 cycles [p< 0.001]. In the functional scale items only role functioning was significant
Conclusion: This study suggests that the quality of life is related to chemotherapy cycles. Although QOL scoring system did not show significant improvement in all areas of our study, but the obtained results indicated a significant association between QOL and number of CT cycles in cancer patients
ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the prevalence of post-traumatic growth [PTG] and its association with socio demographic factors among a cohort of troops in post deployment phase
Study Design: Descriptive cross sectional
Place and Duration of Study: A Military battalion in Lahore from Jan-April 2015, one year after deployment in the combat area
Material and Methods: A sample of 296 combat troops was selected using non-probability convenient sampling technique. After taking informed written consent the data was collected using Urdu version of psychometric tool Post Traumatic Growth Inventory [PTGI]. Data was entered and analyzed SPSS version 20
Results: The mean age of the respondents was 29 +/- 6.2 years. Married and unmarried were 214 [72.3%] and 82 [27.7%] respectively. The mean years of service of the troops were 11. In our study the majority of troops 279[94.3%] exhibited greater degree of positive growth [75] ,15 [5.1%] had moderate degree of positive growth [74-51] while only 2[0.7%] had no post traumatic growth[<50]. There was a significant negative correlation of PTG with the age [p < 0.01] and a significant association of Ethnicity with PTG [p=0.03]. However there was no significant association of PTG with marital status [p= 0.06], education [/7=0.52], income [p=0.71], rank [p= 0.96] and years of service [p= 0.49] at 95% confidence level
Conclusion: It was concluded that there was a high prevalence of resilience as PTG in majority of troops one year after deployment in a combat area