Health-Related Quality of Life in Colorectal Cancer Patients Undergoing Faecal Occult Blood Test and Genetic Testing

Abstract

Early detection of Colorectal Cancer (CRC) is becoming increasingly important in maintaining quality of life. Therefore, understanding the quality of life is a must in health system planning. Hence, this study aimed to determine the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of CRC patients and its associated factors. This is a cross-sectional study was conducted among CRC patients between September 2018 and November 2019 at three tertiary hospitals in Malaysia. Health-related quality of life in CRC patients was measured using a validated EuroQol instrument, the EQ-5D-5L scale. For inferential statistic, non-parametric Mann Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, and chi-square tests were conducted. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05. A total of 222 patients were involved as respondents in this study, of which 164 (73.9%) were colorectal cancer patients undergoing Faecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT) and 58 (26.1%) were colorectal cancer patients undergoing genetic testing. The highest problem rate was reported in the pain/discomfort dimension with 51.4% of the total problems reported by patients. Significant factors related to the EQ-5D-5L utility score were ethnicity, employment status, monthly income, education level and cancer level. While the significant factors related to VAS score are monthly income, education level and cancer level. The model for utility scores confirmed that an important predictor of lower EQ-5D-5L scores was low level of education (p <0.05). Health-related quality of life measurements among patients found that significant differences in pain / discomfort dimension problems were identified between the two colorectal cancer screening methods. Those with low education were important predictor factors in the EQ-5D-5L score model and VAS score.Quality of life,