FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG BREAST CANCER PATIENTS RECEIVING POSTOPERATIVE CHEMOTHERAPY IN HANGZHOU, CHINA

Abstract

The purposes of this correlational study were to describe the health-related quality of life and to examine relationships between symptom experience, social support and HRQoL among postoperative breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in Hangzhou, China. The study was based on the Symptom management theory. A simple random sampling method was used to recruit 130 participants who were treated in the Breast Surgery Department of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital from November to December 2023. Data were collected using four research instruments, including the demographic questionnaire, the Chinese version of the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale, the Chinese version of the Perceived Social Support Scale, and the Chinese version of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson product-moment correlation.

Results revealed that participants reported there were not too high and not too low in mean score of HRQoL (M = 93.45 out of 144, SD = 19.56). Considering the subscale, the functional well-being domain had the lowest mean score (M = 14.52, SD = 5.92), while the mean score of the breast cancer special module was 22.83 out of 36 (SD = 5.07). In addition, there was a high negative correlation between symptom experience and health-related quality of life (r = -.558, p < .01). While social support had a strong positive association with health-related quality of life (r = .556, p

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