A Poorer Nutritional Status Impacts Quality of Life in a Sample Population of Elderly Cancer Patients

Abstract Rationale: Quality of Life (QoL) is impaired in cancer, and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition. A diagnosis of cancer in elderly patients further exacerbate risks of negative health outcomes. Here we investigated associations between QoL and nutritional status in a sample population of mostly socially deprived elderly cancer patients.Method: 432 patients with diagnosed cancer were recruited for this cross-sectional study at point of admission to a tertiary referral charitable hospital for cancer treatment. Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) assessed nutritional status. Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy- General (FACT-G) quantified QoL. PG-SGA outcomes were compared against FACT-G scores employing Mann-Whitney test. Relationship between PG-SGA and QoL scores was assessed by Spearman correlation. Bivariate Linear Regression Model was employed to investigate the influence of sociodemographic, clinical and nutritional status upon QoL.Results: 37.5% of participants were malnourished or at risk. 39% were illiterate and 54.6% had a family income lower than minimum wage. Malnourished patients showed lower FACT-G scores (78.0 vs. 86.0; p=0.000). Poor nutritional diagnosis was inversely correlated with all QoL domains. Bivariate regression analysis showed that worsened PG-SGA scores (βo = -1.00; p = 0.000) contributed to FACT-G score deterioration; the male gender showed less pronounced effects in QoL, whereas literacy and family income did not show relationship.Conclusion: We found that poorer nutritional status was significantly associated with worsened physical, social, emotional and functional well-being domains of QoL in elderly cancer patients. Future policies aimed at this particularly vulnerable population may improve QoL and health outcomes.