The impact of cervical cancer on the quality of women’s life

Introduction:
Cervical cancer is one of the most serious health and social problems in Poland. The aim of the thesis was to assess the quality of life of women with cervical cancer and to compare these results with a group of healthy women.

Material and methods
The research was carried out in a group of 101 women who were treated for cervical cancer. The control group consisted of 100 healthy women. Two standard questionnaires of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTEC) were used to assess the quality of life: QLQ-C30 and QLQ-C24, as well as the proprietary sociometric questionnaire.

Results:
The obtained results indicate that the quality of life in the group of healthy women was better than in the group of patients. It was shown that professionally active patients more often exhibited poor physical functioning, the least educated women experienced fatigue more often, and the respondents who perceived their body image better more often remained sexually active. On the other hand, those who remained sexually active more often reported a better assessment of their general health.

Conclusions:
The quality of life of women with cervical cancer deteriorates compared to that of healthy women. Cervical cancer has the greatest negative impact on the physical functioning and sexuality of patients. Clinical and sociodemographic factors such as professional activity, lack of education, negative body image assessment, and general health condition predispose patients to severe symptoms, deteriorating the quality of life in women treated for cervical cancer.