Comparison of cancer patients quality of life in Hungary and Germany - A cross-national questionnaire analysis

Abstract

Approaches investigating cancer patientsí quality of life have been conducted intensely but most approaches either focusing on the quality of life analysis of patients living in the same country or suffering from the same cancer type. The aim of this study was to compare cancer patientsí quality of life in Hungary and Germany. A self ñ developed questionnaire was distributed in 26 community pharmacies and 4 hospitals in Hungary and Germany from August 2013 to October 2014. Pharmacy selection was performed by reflecting on proper questionnaire randomization. Based on the available facilities the objective was to give a preferably diversified picture of cancer patientsí QoL in the two countries. As the quality of life is a subjective parameter, the patients were asked to make a cross on a scale of 1 to 100. Patients were screened by hospital and pharmacy staff by application of inclusion and exclusion criteria. The non-parametric MannñWhitney and Wilcoxon W-test methods were used to analyze differences in the mean of estimated quality of life between Hungary and Germany. A difference (p = 0.043) in the quality of life mean between Hungarian (65.92 ± 19.25) and German (57.35 ± 23.45) cancer patients was observed. The evaluated median of estimated quality of life differed in Hungary (70) and Germany (60). The interquartile ranges of both compared groups were 30. The result is not in accordance with the general quality of life index of the whole population in Hungary and Germany. There seem to be determining factors which influence the quality of life assessment of cancer patients, such as social relationships, the relation to individual standards and varying illness perceptions in different countries.