A Study on the Influences of the COVID-19 Pandemic-related Depression, Anxiety, Stress, and Treatment-Crisis on Quality of Life in Cancer Patients

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting the quality of life of cancer patients by examining the degree of the COVID-19 pandemic-related depression, anxiety, stress, and treatment-crisis. @*Methods@#Data were collected from 132 cancer patients undergoing surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and hormone therapy at K University Hospital in D City using a structured questionnaire. The period of data collection was from May 6 to May 28, 2022. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation, and stepwise multiple regression. @*Results@#The mean scores of quality of life, depression, anxiety, stress, and treatment-crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic were 84.64±29.09, 15.14±6.49, 4.66±5.27, 75.83±17.70, and 78.52±19.95, respectively. In terms of factors affecting the quality of life related to the COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 pandemic-related stress (β=.41, p<.001) appeared to have the greatest impact, followed by COVID-19 pandemic-related treatment-crisis (β=.28, p=.002), anxiety (β=.21, p=.002), and gender (β=.14, p=.009), with a total explanatory power of 67.6%. @*Conclusion@#To improve the quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 pandemic-related stress, treatment-crisis, and anxiety should be periodically monitored and nursing interventions such as education on infection prevention, management, and emotional support programs should be provided to decrease the COVID-19 pandemic-related stress, treatment-crisis, and anxiety.