A study on the assessment of early postoperative quality of life in elderly gastric cancer patients

Objective To assess early postoperative quality of life in gastric cancer patients and discuss the influence of old age on that.Methods A group of 135 patients were randomly divided into elderly group(aged ≥ 60) and non-elderly group(aged< 60), who were diagnosed with gastric cancer and received radical gastrectomy. Postoperatively 7 days, assessment and comparison were made between the two groups by means of the questionnaire QLQ-C30 of Chinese version. Results The incidence of postoperative complication of pulmonary infection and wound infection were higher in elderly group(P<0.05). In QLQ-C30 assessment, the physical function score of functional subscale in elderly group was lower than that in non-elderly group (P<0.05). Role function and cognitive function scores of functional subscale in elderly group were higher (P<0.05). Pain score of symptom subscale in elderly group was lower (P<0.05). Other items as sleep disturbance were higher in elderly than in non-elderly group (P<0.05). Overall health subscale score was higher in elderly group than in non-elderly group(P<0.05). Conclusion Postoperative quality of life in elderly patients with gastric carcinoma was generally higher than that in non-elderly patients, but physical function and sleep disturbance quality were lower in elderly patients. So targeted measures should be taken in the peri-operative period in this regard.