Abstract:
Background: Gynecologic cancer is becoming a serious health issue that affects patients' health related quality of life .The World Health Organization defines health-related quality of life as an
individual's sense of their place in life to their goals, aspirations, standards, and concerns in the
context of the culture and value systems in which they live. It is a broad notion that is intricately
influenced by a person's physical and mental well-being, social interactions, and relationship to
key environmental factors. In Ethiopia, factors affecting the quality of life of gynecologic cancer
patients is not well explored. Thus, this study aimed to assess health related quality of life
(HRQoL) among gynecologic cancer patients attending at oncology centers in Northwest Ethiopia.
Objectives: To assess health-related quality of life and associated factors among gynecologic
cancer patients in oncology centers in Northwest Ethiopia, 2023.
Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study with a total sample size of 608 gynecologic
cancer patients were employed. Data were collected by interview administered questionnaire,
coded and entered into Epi Data version 4.6, and then exported to STATA version 17 for further
analysis. Texts, Figures, and Tables were used to present descriptive result. Structural equation
model analysis was employed to verify the relation among, exogenous and endogenous variables.
Result: Analysis includes 608 gynecologic cancer patients. The median age of participants were
48(IQR=43-54). The mean score of overall HRQoL was 41.62(± 7.22).The social functioning
domain was the most affected domain with mean score of 22, 01(±8.6).marital status had a direct
(β= -0.5323, 95%CI (-0.990,-0.0740)) and indirect negative effect (β= -0.2317, 95%CI (-0.4438,-
0.0195)) giving a negative total effect (β= -0.795, 95%CI (-1.192,-0.3981)) on global health
domain of HRQoL.
Conclusion and Recommendation: Patients with gynecologic cancer had poor quality of life in
all domains of EORTC-QLQ30 and overall health-related quality of life except the cognitive
domain. socio-demographic factors, namely age, marital status, educational status, occupation
status), disease –and treatment related factors (stage of cancer, type of cancer and type of treatment
received) were significantly associated factors with HRQoL of gynecologic cancer patients
