Health-related quality of life among cancer survivors: pre-existing chronic conditions are to be given priority

This study aimed to describe the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of cancer survivors in China by the five-level EuroQol-5-dimension (EQ-5D-5L) questionnaire and to explore the impact of the comorbidity of pre-existing chronic conditions on HRQoL in cancer survivors.

Data on cancer survivors were obtained from two cross-sectional surveys conducted in Shandong Province, China. The data of the Chinese general population, the Chinese diabetes population, the Chinese hypertension population, and the Chinese urban population from the published studies were used as the controls. The χ² test was conducted to compare the incidence of five-dimensional problems between the study and control populations. The non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis test were performed to examine the differences in EQ-5D-5L utility scores. Besides, the Tobit regression model was used to examine the variables influencing the EQ-5D-5L utility score.

One thousand fifty-one adult cancer survivors were included. Cancer survivors had significantly lower EQ-5D-5L utility scores (Z =  − 15.939, P < 0.001) and EQ-VAS scores (Z =  − 11.156, P < 0.001) than the general adult population. The average EQ-5D-5L utility score of hypertensive cancer survivors was lower than that of the hypertensive population (Z =  − 1.610, P = 0.107), but the difference was not statistically significant.

Compared to the general population, the HRQoL of cancer survivors was extremely poor in all dimensions of the EQ-5D-5L. Pre-existing chronic conditions had significant antecedent effects on the HRQoL of cancer survivors. Therefore, more attention should be paid to chronic diseases, and effective interventions should be adopted based on this.