Effects of Symptom Clusters, Uncertainty and Social Support on Health-related Quality of Life in Patient with Lung Cancer

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of symptom clusters, uncertainty, and social support on the health-related quality of life among patients with lung cancer. @*Methods@#Data were collected with questionnaires on general characteristics, degree of symptoms, uncertainty, social support, and health-related quality of life. @*Results@#The health-related quality of life according to the general characteristics of the subjects showed statistically significant differences in various factors. These factors included the degree of education, occupation, primary caregiver, medical expense burden, diagnosis name, stages of cancer, time of diagnosis, hospitalization, and treatment. A total of 23 symptoms were analyzed, revealing the presence of three symptom clusters (1) Emotional cluster, (2) Cancer symptom cluster, and (3) Treatment adverse event cluster. Significant correlations were observed between the health-related quality of life, uncertainty, and social support among the subjects. Variables that significantly affected the healthrelated quality of life of the subjects were uncertainty, social support, and the cluster of cancer symptoms. @*Conclusion@#The results of this study provide valuable data for developing nursing intervention strategies aimed at improving the health-related quality of life of patients with lung cancer.