Evaluation of Health-Related Quality of Life among Patients with Cervical Cancer in Indonesia

Background: Evaluation of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in cervical cancer patients is importantin order to design the interventions for improving patient outcomes. Reports of HRQOL among cervical cancerpatients in Indonesia are limited. Moreover, measurement using EQ-5D-3L is to our best knowledge has hithertonot been performed. This study aimed to examine the HRQOL of cervical cancer patients in Indonesia using EQ-5D-3L. Materials and
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted by interviewing cervical cancer patientsusing the EQ-5D-3L questionnaire. Percentages of patients who reported having problems in each dimensionof EQ-5D as well as EQ-5D index score (utility) were calculated.
Results: Our findings indicated that the mostfrequent reported problems were pain/discomfort (67.8%) followed by anxiety/depression (57.5%). The meanof EQ-5D VAS was 75.8 (SD=17.0). The mean (SD) utility scores were 0.85 (0.19), 0.76 (0.20), 0.71 (0.21), and0.77 (0.13) for cervical cancer patients in stage I, II, III, and IV, respectively.
Conclusions: Cervical cancersignificantly affects patient HRQOL. Efforts should be made to improve the quality of life of cervical cancerpatients especially in terms of pain /discomfort and anxiety/depression reduction.