Background:
Over the past two decades, numerous instruments have been developed to measure health related quality of life. The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy scale was developed by Cella DF, et al. to measure quality of life in patients undergoing cancer treatment.1
Aim:
• To find out correlation between total Emotional Well Being (EWB) and Social Well Being (SWB) and FACT-G total score in Indian context
• To find out which statement in the SWB and EWB having minimum score
• To find out which statement in the SWB and EWB having maximum score
Methods:
Patients suffering from cancer were enrolled and asked to fill the FACT-G form with the help of a social worker
Results:
SWB:
The statement which got maximum score in SWB was “I get emotional support from my family”
The statement that got least score in the SWB was “I get support from my friends”
EWB:
The statement which got maximum score in emotional wellbeing was “I worry about dying”
The statement that got least score in the emotional wellbeing was “I worry that my condition will get worse
There was a correlation of 0.78 between total SWB and total FACT-G score
There was a correlation of 0.61 between total EWB and total FACT-G score
Conclusions:
Family is the centre for attention for these patients and so adequate counselling and support should be provided to the family members. This is even more important as friends gradually provide less support which may be due to less social interaction and social stigma because of illness.
Results of EWB suggest that though patients worry most about dying but on the other hand worry least about their condition becoming worse. This may be because patients are usually kept in dark about the prognosis both by their relatives and doctors till the very end due to collusion.