Quality of life among patients receiving chemotherapy in the outpatient departments of a general hospital and its correlation with pain / 中国医学科学院学报

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To analyze the relationship of quality of life and pain in patients receiving chemotherapy in the outpatient departments in a general hospital.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to collect data on pain status, sleep disorder,vomiting,constipation as well as the social function status.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Among the 428 patient-times of survey, 12.2% of the patients had moderate to severe pain,of which 78.8% was consistent pain. The occurrence of pain was closely related to the metastasis of cancer (P = 0.000). The intensity and location of pain were independently correlated to the origin of cancer (P = 0.035, P = 0.000). Nearly a quarter of patients (24.5%) agreed that talking with his/her family was helpful to relieve pain, while 17.3% of patients had ambulatory restriction or changes in social function. The changes in social function were closely related with sleeping disorder, constipation, fatigue, and intensity of pain (all ,0.05). Furthermore, sleeping disorder was related to pain intensity (P=0.000), while constipation had no relationship with analgesic medicines (P = 0.798).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>A significantly large proportion of patients who are receiving chemotherapies in the outpatient departments of general hospital are suffering from moderate to severe pain. Their decreased social functions correlate with the cancer-related somatic symptoms.</p>