Review: Predictors of quality of life among older patients with cancer during treatment.

Abstract

This paper offers a valuable insight into quality of life among older people (over 60) with different types of cancer during the treatment period. The wide sample (150 patients) encompassing various cancers enabled a wide analytical purchase distinguishing the various attributes of quality of life. The background is helpful in that it extricates an important part of theoretical and empirical literature, providing a contextual background to the cultural meaning of quality of life for older people with cancer in Jordan. The significant foci of the paper are on the importance of quality of life including hope, focusing on the treatment phase of the cancer journey. Data-generating tools were also diverse, which emphasised the importance of a holistic exploration of quality of life through the use of generic and specific quality-of-life tools. From a theoretical perspective, findings are helpful in highlighting the lack of quality of life that older people with cancer experience. Importantly, this current study highlights the numerous proportions and concepts often neglected or altogether undetectable in previous explorations of what it means to be old and have cancer. The social and emotional adaptations of older people with cancer are unique in their need to have emotional contact and family members who can support them. The study was insightful, highlighting the importance of family bonds, having money that provides physical and emotional security compared to those living alone and having little or no income. In addition, people with a higher income and education have a more positive outcome of quality of life compared to others less fortunate. These quality-of-life indicators highlight the social inequalities that exist when older people with cancer are living in different life worlds. This paper contributes to the literature in a distinctive way, reinforcing how the educational level of older people with cancer, hope, anxiety and depression are interlinked. These findings are unique in informing how specific educational programmes could be developed to help support older people with cancer. Moreover, these findings are