Pre- and Post-Treatment Quality of Life Among Patients with Advanced Stage Cervical Cancer at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia

Roza Teshome; Irene Yang; Edom Woldetsadik; Eshetu Girma; Melinda Higgins; Jessica Wells

doi:10.2147/CMAR.S451124

Pre- and Post-Treatment Quality of Life Among Patients with Advanced Stage Cervical Cancer at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia

Cancer Manag Res. 2024 Apr 17:16:311-323. doi: 10.2147/CMAR.S451124. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Roza Teshome¹, Irene Yang², Edom Woldetsadik³, Eshetu Girma⁴, Melinda Higgins², Jessica Wells²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Midwifery, School of Nursing & Midwifery, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
² Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
³ Department of Oncology, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
⁴ Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Background: The development of health concepts beyond traditional markers of illness and death has made the evaluation of quality of life (QoL) crucial to patient care. Yet, there is little research evaluating the pre- and post-treatment QoL of cervical cancer survivors in Ethiopia.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the pre- and post-treatment QoL of women diagnosed with advanced-stage cervical cancer.

Methods and materials: A cohort design was conducted at the Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital Oncology Center. A total of 166 cervical cancer patients were recruited consecutively. Data was collected through interviews with standardized questionnaires before and after treatment. The Wilcoxon rank test was used to assess the significant differences in pre-treatment and post-treatment quality of life. Additionally, the Mann-Whitney U-test was also employed. Statistical significance was determined with p-values <0.05 and a 95% confidence interval.

Results: Women who were in stages IVA and IVB were 24.7% and 10.2%, respectively. Both the global health scale (66.67 [47.92-75] to 83.33 [66.67-83.33]) and the functional domain QoL (66.67 [40-80] to 70 [46.67-86.66]) showed statistically significant improvements from pre-treatment to post-treatment QoL. Women under the age of 45 were found to have higher global health QOL (P < 0.001) and functional domain QOL (P = 0.029). Women presented in stages II and III had comparatively higher global health QoL (P = 0.008) and functional domain QoL (P = 0.021).

Conclusion: Global health QOL and the majority of functional quality of life significantly improved following six months of cancer treatment. But there was no discernible change in terms of sexual enjoyment, sexual function, or activity. Age, marital status, the duration since diagnosis, the stage of the cancer, and the presence of comorbidities were the factors that affected the improvement of post-treatment quality of life.

Keywords: Ethiopia; cervical cancer; post-treatment; pre-treatment; quality of life.

Grants and funding

The study was funded by Addis Ababa University College of Health sciences.