Perceived cognitive difficulties and quality of life among newly diagnosed non-CNS cancer patients from a low-resource setting

Abstract

Recent evidence has revealed that non-CNS cancer patients experience pre-treatment cognitive complaints with a negative impact on their quality of life (QOL). Despite this knowledge, there is a lack of studies in resource-constrained settings that investigate cognitive complaints before treatment and their association with QOL among diverse non-CNS cancers. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between cognitive difficulties and quality of life among newly diagnosed non-CNS cancer patients in an African context. A purposive sample of 50 non-CNS cancer patients aged 18 years and above were recruited into a cross-sectional study before oncology treatment at a tertiary hospital in Gauteng. The patients were assessed for subjective cognitive functioning using the perceived cognitive impairment, comments from others, and quality of life subscales of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–Cognitive Function (FACT-Cog) version 3. Spearman correlational analyses and t-test were performed to examine associations and differences. We observed a significant and moderate positive association between perceived cognitive impairment (PCI) and comments from others about cognition (Oth) (rs(46)= 0.460, p < .001) and between PCI and quality of life (QOL) (rs(44) = 0.554, p < .001). No significant association was found between Oth and QOL rs(46) = 0.172, p = 0.242. The findings revealed an association between perceived cognitive impairment (PCI) and quality of life among non-CNS cancer patients before treatment. The results highlight the need for cognitive and quality of life screening before treatment and implementation of early interventions to prevent deterioration and to improve health outcomes.