방사선 치료를 받는 암 환자들의 사회적 지지와 삶의 질과의 관계 = Relationship Between Social Support and Quality of Life among Cancer Patients Receiving Radiation Therapy

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Objective : This study was performed to investigate the relationship between social support and quality of life among cancer patients receiving radiation therapy.
Matehals and Methods : The data were collected from 98 patients, who were receiving radiation therapy at two university hospitals located in GwangUJu, used by structured questionnaire. For statistical analyses of the association between quality of life and various characteristics, data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, Pearson 's correlation, and multiple regression analysis.
Results:
1. There were 56(57.1%) males and 42(42.9%) females. Age ranged from 21 to 82 years. The primary sites of cancer were gastrointestinal tract (24.5%), lung (23.5%), breast (21.4%), and head and neck (11.2%) in order.
2. The mean scores of social, family, and medical support were 4.30 0.58, 4.49 0.78, 4.11 0.65, respectively. The score of quality of life was 5.83 1.63 (range: 1.95 ~ 9.05).
3. An analysis of the association between several factors of patients and quality of life showed that the statistically significant factors were age, the presence of distant metastasis, family support, medical support and social support.
4. As a result of the multiple regression analysis, only social support was significant (β=0.932, P=0.02) with quality of life, but age and presence of distant metastasis were not significant.
Conclusion : This suggests that quality of life in cancer patients could be improved by strengthening the social support which consists of family and medical support. Further study would be necessary to evaluate separately several aspects of quality of life among cancer patients.