Quality of life and patients with cancer: a comparative study of patient versus physician perceptions and its implications for cancer education.

ABSTRACT

A group of 300 matched pairs of adult patients with cancer (PWC) and their physicians were interviewed concerning the effects of disease and treatment on the patients' quality of life (QL). Patients were asked to rate specific QL factors that concerned them personally, while physicians were asked to evaluate the QL concerns of a hypothetical patient population exhibiting characteristics and diagnoses similar to those of their matched patients. The results indicated that physicians failed to recognize age as a factor having a direct impact upon the QL of their patients. Specifically, physicians estimated that elderly PWC, rather than young PWC, experienced more problems in four out of five QL categories, while in actuality younger patients reported more difficulties in all five categories when compared to their older counterparts. These data suggest that physicians should become more sensitive to the individualized, personal nature of their patients' QL and the factors that may shape or modify it. Implications for cancer education suggest a focus upon determining specific PWC needs as opposed to teaching general QL problems. Students should also be taught not to assume that all PWC experience the same QL concerns; rather, students should be taught to develop a specific history seeking to determine these needs. Finally, educators and students should recognize that young PWC apparently have more difficulty with their disease and its therapy than older PWC.