Financial literacy and quality of life amongst cancer patients in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Purpose: The quality of life has been widely examined by social science researchers with reference to different lifestyle-related issues of people across the world. It has made an eye-opening contribution by many authors educating the importance of quality of life for patients suffering from different diseases including cancers as one of the critical scopes. Alongside this, this study aimed to examine how financial literacy and social support could impact the quality of life of cancer patients in Sri Lanka with a rationale for its social and community impacts. Design/methodology/approach: The variable of financial distress was considered the main independent variable within the scope of financial literacy to examine its influence on the quality of life of cancer patients. Additionally, this study investigated how social support influences the quality of life of cancer patients supported by empirical evidence. It followed a quantitative research method in line with the required inclusions for an acceptable methodology. Respondents were selected for the survey with a questionnaire followed by a convenient sampling method. The final analysis was limited to 187 respondents due to the incompletion of the questionnaires filled in by the sample units. The hypotheses were tested by using the CB-SEM model supported by Amos-23 software and the descriptive analysis was executed by using the SPSS-21 package. Findings: The main findings of the study were discussed in the article in line with the two hypotheses tested. In brief, results proved that financial distress (FD) has a significant impact on the quality of life (QoL) of cancer patients. Additionally, it has tested the hypotheses related to how social support (SS) impacts on quality of life (QoL) of cancer patients. The results verified that social support experienced by cancer patients significantly influences the quality of life of cancer patients. Originality: The cancer patients in Sri Lanka should be supported by a holistic approach besides the treatments. Alongside this, this paper contributes new knowledge of examining how the quality of life of cancer patients has been influenced by financial distress and social support in line with the empirical and practice gaps noticed. In addition, this study contributes to the main scopes mentioned by sustainable development goals (SDG) with reference to the local context as it provides new knowledge for social and community-related issues. Implications: The findings of the study could be used by the health sector authorities and social welfare service organizations to come up with policies and programs to make life better for cancer patients in terms of financial and social aspects.   Keywords: Quality of Life, Financial Literacy, Financial Distress, Social Support, Sri Lanka