PURPOSE:
The purpose of this study was to compare
depression and
quality of life (QOL) according to
nutritional status of
elderly cancer patients receiving
chemotherapy.
METHODS:
A sample of 144
elderly cancer patients receiving
chemotherapy was recruited for the
cross-sectional survey design. The instruments were the
Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF), Geriatric
Depression Scale Short Form-
Korea (GDSSF-K), European
Organization for
Research and
Treatment of
Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 and QLQ ELD14. Data were analyzed using the SPSS/WIN program.
RESULTS:
Nutrition had mean of 10.17 points out of 14 and
depression had mean of 6.72 points (out of 15). In
quality of life,
global health status/QoL was 50.06 points, 66.68 for the functional scale, and 29.77 for the symptom scale based on 100 points. The
quality of life of
elderly cancer patients was 36.52~70.14. There was a significant difference between the well-nourished and malnourished group in
depression and QoL. There were significant correlations among the variables,
nutritional status,
depression and
quality of life.
CONCLUSION:
We found that
patients with
cancer of the
elderly receiving
chemotherapy had poor
nutritional status,
depression, and poor QoL. It is necessary to evaluate the
nutritional status of
elderly cancer patients receiving
chemotherapy and to develop interventions.