Determinants of quality of life in prostate cancer patients: A single institute analysis

Objective: To determine factors that influence quality of life in prostate cancer patients. Patients and methods: Patients with pathologically verified prostate cancer and treated at the National Cheng Kung University Hospital were invited to fill out the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF questionnaires at the outpatient clinic. We explored the determinants of quality of life including age, education, income, marital status, disease stage, and treatment modality using a mixed-effects model. Results: From January 2013 to July 2014, a total of 248 patients were investigated and 404 measurements were performed. Among them, there were 110 patients, 48 patients, and 90 patients with localized, locally advanced, and metastatic disease, respectively. After adjustment for comorbidities and other confounders, patients who were married showed a significantly higher score in the domains of physical health, social relationships including sexual satisfaction, and opportunities to obtain information and leisure activities. A higher income was associated with a higher score in physical, psychological, and environment domains. Patients with metastatic disease showed lower scores in the physical domain. Conclusion: Our data demonstrated that marital status is an important determinant of quality of life in prostate cancer patients besides other sociodemographic factors. Clinicians are advised to provide more social support recourses for patients who do not have a partner.