Socioeconomic status and health-related quality of life among patients with prostate cancer 6 months after radical prostatectomy: a longitudinal analysis

OBJECTIVES: To identify the associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and the explanatory contribution of disease, patient and healthcare factors among patients with prostate cancer.

DESIGN: Prospective cohort study.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: In all, 246 patients from 2 hospitals in Hamburg/Germany who underwent radical prostatectomy completed a questionnaire shortly before discharge from hospital and again 6 months later.

OUTCOME MEASURES: HRQOL as assessed by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ C-30 including global quality of life, 5 functional scales and 9 symptom scales/items. Generalised estimating equations were calculated to analyse longitudinal data.

RESULTS: Lower SES measured by income, education and occupational status is significantly associated with lower HRQOL 6 months after treatment. This especially holds true for the functional scales. After introducing disease, patient and healthcare factors, associations remain significant in the majority of cases. The explanatory contribution of patient factors such as comorbidity or psychosocial characteristics and of healthcare factors is slightly stronger than that of disease factors.

CONCLUSIONS: We identified strong social inequalities in HRQOL among patients with prostate cancer 6 months after surgery, in Germany. The underlying causes could not be sufficiently identified, and further research regarding these associations and their explanatory factors is needed.