Comparison of quality of life between urban and rural gastric cancer patients and analysis of influencing factors

AIM: The conception of quality of life has been widely accepted by clinic doctors. Evaluations of the treatment effect of chronic diseases have been changed to depend not only on the survival time, but also on the quality of life of the patients. Fuzhou City and Changle County are high-incidence areas of the gastric cancer in Fujian Province. The aims of this research were to compare the quality of life of urban patients with that of rural patients and analyze the factors influencing quality of life of gastric cancer patients in Fujian Province. METHODS: The samples were drawn with cluster sampling. The urban sample consisted of 162 patients aged 25 to 75 with 143 males and 19 females. The rural sample consisted of 200 patients aged 32 to 78 with 166 males and 34 females. The patients in both the urban and rural areas were investigated, and their scores on 21 items reflecting the quality of life were measured. The methods of t test and stepwise regression were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The average total scores of quality of life of the urban patients and rural patients were 64.11 and 68.69 respectively. There was a significant difference between the means of two samples (P = 0.0004). Seven variables in the regression model estimated by the urban sample and 4 variables in the model by the rural sample were at the level of significance alpha = 0.05. Family income, nutrition and rehabilitating exercise were selected into both the urban and rural regression models. CONCLUSION: Most of the gastric cancer patients have poor quality of life in Fujian Province and the rural patients have lower quality of life than that of urban patients. The patients having more family income have better quality of life, and enhanced nutrition and doing rehabilitating exercise are helpful in improving the quality of life of the gastric cancer patients.