Cognitive Processes of Cancer Patients: A Major Threat to Patients' Quality of Life

Objective: To explore the effects of intrusive and deliberate rumination on the quality of life of cancer patients. Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional design. Place and Duration of Study: PIMS and NORI Hospital between July to September 2016. Methodology: A sample of 100 cancer patients participated in the study. The patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were given a written consent form. Event related Rumination Inventory and WHO Quality of Life-Bref scale was used for data collection. Results: There were 57 male and 43 female patients within the age range of 18 to 66 years (mean = 36.62 +/- 13.77 years). A significant negative correlation was found between intrusive rumination and all domains of quality of life as physical (r = -0.28, p<0.01), psychological (r = -0.19, p<0.01), social (r = -0.20, p<0.01), environmental (r = -0.17, p<0.05), and global (r = -0.26, p<0.01) functioning. Furthermore, results on regression analysis showed the significant prediction of the intrusive rumination on all domains of quality of life. The effect of deliberate rumination was found to be non-significant. Conclusion: Intrusive rumination significantly negatively predicted all domains of quality of life, whereas, quality of life of cancer patients was not significantly predicated by deliberate rumination.