Quality of Life of Emirati Women with Breast Cancer

Abstract

To examine the quality of life (QoL) of Emirati women with breast cancer (BC) and determine its relationships with their sociodemographic characteristics and clinical factors. The study will play a leading role in providing information about the QoL of Emirati women with BC and will help in recognizing the aspects of QoL in BC survivorship that requires special attention. A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 250 Emirati women using a multistage stratified clustered random sampling. The participants were interviewed face-to-face using a structured questionnaire composed of sociodemographic variables, reproductive characteristics, and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Cancer-Specific version (EORTC QLQ-C30, v.3.0) and the EORTC QoL Breast Cancer-Specific version (EORTC QLQ-BR23) translated into Arabic. Emirati BC survivors reported good QoL overall. The most bothersome symptoms were sleep disturbance, fatigue, pain, hair loss and arm symptoms. Emirati women scored average on all functional scales, which indicates mediocre functioning, but high on the symptom scales, which indicates worse symptoms. Factors associated with a decline in the domains of QoL included higher age, lower income, and history of metastases, mastectomy, and lymph node dissection.