Markers of low socio-economic status and lack of social support are associated with

low health-related quality-of-life in colorectal cancer survivors

Linda Sharp, Alan O’Ceilleachair, Eamonn O’Leary,

Mairead Skally, Paul Hanly

email: a.oceilleachair@ucc.ie

Introduction & MethodsBackground:

Increasing focus on maximising quality, as well as quantity, of life after cancer diagnosis.HRQoL as a potential prognostic factor in some cancers

Aim: To investigate factors associated with HRQoL among colorectal cancer (CRC) survivors.

Methods:Cross-sectional postal survey of CRC survivors (ICD10 C18-20) 6-30 months post-DxEORTC QLQ30Socio-demographic and clinical variablesmultivariate logistic regression; predicting low HRQoL (≤50 , bottom quartile)

Characteristics of participants

% of 495 respondents

Sex Cancer site

male 63% colon 61%

female 37% rectum 39%

Age at diagnosis Time since diagnosis

<65 40% <1 year 37%

65-74 34% 1-2 years 47%

75+ 26% 2+ years 16%

Employment status at diagnosis Stage at diagnosis

working 40% I/II 47%

retired 42% III/IV 42%

other 18% unstaged 11%

Marital status Treatment received

married/cohabiting 76% surgery 86%

other 24% chemotherapy 28%

radiotherapy 16%

response rate=40%

HRQoL

1% 0.2% 1% 1%

4% 4%

15%

6%

21%

8%

20%

3%

17%

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%F

req

uen

cy

HRQoL: global health scorelowestHRQoL

highest HRQoL

mean=69.8 (sd=21.6)median=66.7 (inter-quartile range 50.0-83.3)

“low” HRQoL

Results/Conclusions

• Education and family circumstances predict low HRQoL in CRC survivors, after adjusting for clinical variables.

• Education- socio-economic status Children – social support.

• These findings highlight subgroups of survivors who might benefit from additional support, advice or care.