Nutritional Status and its Association with Quality of Life among Cancer Patients in Southern Sri Lanka: A Cross-Sectional Study

 Background and objectives: Malnutrition is a prevalent yet frequently overlooked issue among cancer patients, contributing to diminished quality of life (QOL). This study aimed to evaluate the nutritional status and QOL of cancer patients in a tertiary healthcare setting in Southern Sri Lanka.

Materials and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study included 425 participants from the Oncology Unit of Teaching Hospital, Karapitiya. Data on socio-demographic characteristics were gathered through an interviewer-administered questionnaire. The nutritional status and QOL were assessed using the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment Short Form (PG-SGA SF) and the validated Sinhala version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30), respectively. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS Version 25.

Results: From the total subjects (n=425), majority (67.1%, n= 285) were females and 174 (40.9%) belonged to the age group of 51- 61 years. Among them, 168 (39.5%) subjects had cancers in the digestive tract and 110 (25.9%) had breast cancers. Nutritional status according to PG-SGA SF demonstrated that 191 (44.9%) patients were well-nourished and the majority (55.0%, n=234) were malnourished. Among malnourished, 158 were moderately and 76 were severely malnourished. Mean (SD) score for the overall quality of life defined as global health status according to EORTC QLQ-C30 was 54.36 ± 27.5 indicating poor overall QOL (reference value >61.3). All the dimensions of the functioning scale and the symptoms scale had low and high mean scores respectively indicating poor QOL. The association between the overall QOL and different nutritional stages (p< 0.001) and all the dimensions of the functional scale and symptoms scale (p< 0.05) were statistically significant.

Conclusions: The study reveals a high prevalence of moderate to severe malnutrition among cancer patients, accompanied by poor QOL. A statistically significant correlation between nutritional status and QOL scores reflects the imperative requirement of nutritional interventions aimed at enhancing QOL in this specific population.