A study to assess the psychosocial aspects of care for cancer patients with COVID-19 at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, India

COVID-19 has more impact on cancer patients due to their immune compromised status. In this study, we tried to understand the impact of cancer patients afflicted with COVID-19 in the physical, emotional, vocational, financial and social domains. The patient caregivers’ problems were also assessed. The investigator tailored the tool and content validity was done by the experts. Total samples were 50 and convenient sampling was used. Descriptive statistics were used and the Shapiro–Wilk’s test was used for normalcy of the variables. The major findings were that the majority belonged to male population with an average annual salary. The diagnosis was hematolymphoid as the main focus compared to breast, bone, gynaecological, gastrointestinal, genitourinary and others. Patients who were receiving chemotherapy were in the majority when compared to radiation, Palliation and surgery. In the physical domain, patients experienced fatigue as a major problem most probably due to the treatment of chemotherapy. The other major problems were loss of smell, breathlessness and loss of appetite. Skin pigmentations were not experienced. In the emotional domain, the major problem was the depression they experienced during COVID-19. In the social domain, financial problems was the most important aspect and access to medication acquirement and transport during the pandemic and job securities were the other problems. Care givers felt social distancing to be a major aspect while looking after patients. They were very uncertain about the prognosis of COVID-19. The Middle age group had more emotional problems.