Palliative care and quality of life: A case of cancer pateints in Iran

Quality of life (QoL) is a major concern for cancer patients. Patients with cancer have a poor quality of life. Palliative care is one of the ways to improve the quality of life of cancer patients but palliative care is a relatively new concept in Iran. This study was conducted to compare the quality of life among cancer patients receiving palliative care than those who do not receive palliative care in Iran. This was a cross-sectional study. The sample size comprised of 97 patients who received palliative care and 302 patients who did not receive palliative care. The specific questionnaire was used for data collection. Data analyzed using SPSS software version 22 with descriptive and analytic statistics. Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the quality of life between under coverage of palliative care and not under coverage of palliative care groups.

The total QoL among patients receiving palliative care was lower than those who did not receive (50.23±7.77 VS 53.41±10.07), and this difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). Furthermore, there was a significant association between palliative care and satisfaction with the social relationship, satisfaction with treatment, limitations and Total QoL (P<0.05). satisfaction with treatment had a better condition in patients who receiving palliative care.the result of generalized linear regression model indicated that QoL in patients who were under coverage of palliative care was better in comparison with those patients who were not under coverage of palliative care (p < .0001). The findings showed that cancer patients who did not receive palliative care had better QoL than those who did. Patients who received palliative care had higher satisfaction with treatment. It seems that the most impact of palliative care was related to patient satisfaction with the treatment process.