Unemployment and health-related quality of life in melanoma patients during the COVID-19 pandemic: A web-based cross-sectional study (preprint)

ABSTRACT

Background The outbreak of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) ineluctably caused social distancing and unemployment, which may bring additional health risks for patients with cancer. To investigate the association of the pandemic-related impacts with the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among patients with melanoma during the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted a cross-sectional study among Chinese patients with melanoma.Methods A self-administered online questionnaire was distributed to melanoma patients through social media. Demographic and clinical data, and pandemic-related impacts (unemployment and income loss) were collected. HRQoL was determined by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) and its disease-specific module (the melanoma subscale, MS).Results A total of 70 patients with melanoma completed the study. The mean age of the patients was 55.2 ± 14.8 years, 45.7% (32/70) were male, and 21.4% (15/70) were unemployed since the epidemic. Unemployment of the patients and their family members and income loss were significantly associated with a lower FACT-G score, while the MS score was associated with the unemployment of the patients’ family members.Conclusions Our findings suggested that unemployment is associated with impaired HRQoL in melanoma patients during the COVID-19 epidemic.