Quality of life of the cancer patients receiving home-based palliative care in Dhaka city of Bangladesh

BACKGROUND: The concept of home-based palliative care has been recently introduced in Bangladesh, but the patients’ quality of life remains unexplored. This study aimed to assess the quality of life and its determinants of the cancer patients receiving home-based palliative care in Dhaka, Bangladesh. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 51 surviving cancer patients above 18 years registered under the home-based care service of the Department of Palliative Medicine, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Data was collected by face-to-face interview using a structured questionnaire based on the “Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Palliative (FACIT-Pal)” questionnaire from February to March 2019. Descriptive analysis was done for the socio-demographic, disease and treatment related factors. Mann-Whiteney U test, Kruskal-Wallis H test, and logistic regression were done to determine the relationships between independent variables and QoL. RESULT: The majority of the patients (76.5%) were women. The mean age of the respondents was 56.2±4.8 years. Common primary sites of cancer were breast (39.2%), gastrointestinal (17.6%), and genitourinary system (23.5%). The median duration of getting home-based care was four months. The most prevalent problems were pain, sadness, feeling ill, and lack of satisfaction regarding sexual life. The majority (88.2%) of the patients had an average and above-average quality of life. Although, 92.1%patients had average or above-average social and emotional wellbeing, 60.8% had below-average physical wellbeing. Patients’ marital status, belief about disease prognosis, and duration of getting home-based care had a positive influence, and age negatively influenced the quality of life. CONCLUSION: The majority of the patients receiving home-based palliative care in Dhaka city had average or above-average quality of life. However, these patients had better social and emotional wellbeing, but the physical wellbeing and symptom control were below-average according to the individual domain.