OBJECTIVEA survey on cancer patients at the community level in Shanghai was performed, in order to study the factors affecting the quality of life (QOL) on them.

METHODSTo evaluate the QOL of cancer patients, self-administered Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) questionnaire and personal interview methods were used. Data analysis was performed by SPSS software (SPSS,Chicago, IL), including one-way ANOVA and linear regression methods.

RESULTSThere were 7580 valid questionnaires retrieved. Many factors were certificated to have significant relationship with QOL of cancer patients,such as family incomes, education, occupation, awareness of disease, physical exercise, cost of health care and pain (P < 0.01). Some factors however, only affecting certain aspects of the QOL, of which age, marriage state, type of tumor and stage were also noticed. KPS had strong Linear correlation with every aspect of FACT-G (P < 0.000).

CONCLUSIONPatients having a poor KPS, metastasis, low educational level, divorced or lost of spouse, pain, poor income, little exercise and old age would tend to have a poor QOL outcome.