Health Related Quality of Life, Perceived Stress, Depression, Perceived Social Support, Coping Strategies and Health Locus of Control in Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancer; A Path Analysis Study

Aims: Gastrointestinal (GI) cancer is commonly increasingly prevalent among Indians and improvement of health related quality of life (HRQOL) has been one of goals in health care for people living with cancer. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between perceived Stress, depression, perceived social support, coping strategies and Health locus of control (HLOC) with health related quality of life (HRQOL) in patient with gastrointestinal cancer. Materials & Methods: In this cross sectional study 100 Indian patients with GI cancer were selected with convenience sampling method from Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) Hospital in Hyderabad, India from July 2013 to September 2014. Data were collected using questionnaires. Relationships between variables were tested by path analysis, using SPSS/AMOS 23. Findings: Maladaptive coping directly and negatively correlated with HRQOL (β=−0.15), mediated by perceived stress. HRQOL of the patients with cancer, who used more maladaptive coping perceived more stress, was worse. Perceived Social Support directly and positively correlated with HRQOL (β=0.44) mediated by perceived stress and depression, demonstrating that patients with higher perceived social support experienced less stress and depression; therefore, they have better HRQOL. Depression (β=−0.40) and Perceived Stress (β=−0.22) directly and negatively correlated with HRQOL. Perceived stress was mediated by Depression. There was no significant association between HLOC and HRQOL. Conclusion: The important role of social support needs to be communicated to family members in home visits. Promoting Coping and Adjustment to cancer and Psychological intervention for preventing and treating depression is necessary.