QUALITY OF LIFE AND DEATH ANXIETY AMONG PATIENTS WITH CANCER AND NON-CANCER PARTICIPANTS

Abstract

The present study aimedto explore quality of life anddeath anxiety among patientswith cancerand non-cancer participants. Between group research design was used in the present research.This study was conducted on 105 patientswith cancerand 95non-cancer participants. Data of patientswith cancerwas collected from the outdooras well as indoor departments of Oncology of 3 teaching hospitals and 2 private hospitals and 3private clinics. The patient’s population was taken after complete diagnosis by respective doctors while the non-cancer participants were taken from the community. Death anxiety was measured through the Leming fearof death anxiety scale, (Leming, 1980)and Quality of life was assessed with the help of World Health Organizationquality of life scale-BREF (World Health Organization, 1991). Cancer and non-cancer participants groups were matched on age, gender, education, socioeconomic status, occupation, and religion. The results of t-testindicated that cancer patients had higher level of death anxiety while significance difference between the Quality of life among patientswith cancerand non-cancer participants except social relationships. Using one way ANOVA, significant differencesof death anxiety were found on the basis of level of religiosity among Patientswith cancerand non-cancer participants werefoundin whichpatientswith cancer hadgreater level of death anxiety as compared to non-cancer participantswhile opposite was true forlevel of religiosity. Theresults were discussed in the light of previous literature and theoretical background.