Prospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Sep 27, 2021; 13(9): 1050-1062
Published online Sep 27, 2021. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v13.i9.1050
Quality of life after colorectal surgery: A prospective study of patients compared with their spouses
Gökçe Aylaz, Cihangir Akyol, Akın Fırat Kocaay, Derya Gökmen, Ayşe Burcu Yavuzarslan, Ayhan Bülent Erkek, Mehmet Ayhan Kuzu
Gökçe Aylaz, Department of Surgery, Sisli Memorial Hospital, Istanbul 34385, Turkey
Cihangir Akyol, Akın Fırat Kocaay, Ayşe Burcu Yavuzarslan, Ayhan Bülent Erkek, Mehmet Ayhan Kuzu, Department of Surgery, Ankara University School of Medicine, Ankara 06100, Turkey
Derya Gökmen, Department of Biostatistics, Ankara University School of Medicine, Ankara 06100, Turkey
Author contributions: Aylaz G, Akyol C and Kuzu MA contributed to the study conception and design; Aylaz G, Kocaay AF, Yavuzarslan AB and Erkek AB contributed to the literature search and data extraction; Aylaz G, Gökmen D and Kuzu MA contributed to the acquisition, management, analysis and interpretation of data; Aylaz G, Kocaay AF and Akyol C drafted the manuscript; Kuzu MA and Akyol C critically revised the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, Ankara University (21 September 2009, approval number: 06-82).
Clinical trial registration statement: This study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov. The registration identification number is NCT04744792.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors have a conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Cihangir Akyol, FASCRS, FEBS, MD, Professor, Department of Surgery, Divison of Colorectal Surgery, Ankara University School of Medicine, Ankara 06100, Turkey. cihangirakyol@gmail.com
Received: March 25, 2021
Peer-review started: March 25, 2021
First decision: June 14, 2021
Revised: June 30, 2021
Accepted: July 29, 2021
Article in press: July 29, 2021
Published online: September 27, 2021
Processing time: 177 Days and 0.9 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

We hypothesized that colorectal cancer surgery affects not only the patient’s physical, social, and psychological aspects of lifestyle, but also the quality of life (QoL) of the patient’s spouse.

Research motivation

Although there are many studies investigating the QoL in patients who have colorectal cancer none of these focus on the spousal QoL. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first prospective and comparative study investigating the QoL following colorectal cancer surgery in both the patients and their spouses during the same time frame.

Research objectives

The aim of this prospective and comparative study was to investigate the QoL of patients and their spouses.

Research methods

Patients who remained well a minimum of 5 years after curative surgery for colorectal carcinoma and their spouse's as well were included in this prospective study. Both patients (n: 100) and their spouses (n: 100) filled SF-36 (Medical Outcome Study 36-item Short Form Survey) and WHODAS-II (World Health Organization-Disability Assessment Schedule II) preoperatively (preop), and postop 15-18 mo.

Research results

There were statistically significant positive correlations between the disability scores of both patients and their spouses for the ”self-care”, ”life activities” and ”participation in society” subscales of WHODAS II and the total score for WHODAS II (P < 0.01; for each). There were also positive correlations between the life quality of both patients and their spouses in most of the subscales of SF-36. Statistically significant correlations were found for ”bodily pain”, “general health”, ”vitality”, ”social function”, ”role emotional”, ”mental health” and MCS subscales of SF-36 (P < 0.05; for each). When the gender differences were evaluated, it was found that the QoL of female spouses changed more than male spouses for all subscales of WHODAS-II.

Research conclusions

Patients as well as their spouses QoL was affected following colorectal cancer surgery. These changes detected more significantly in female spouses.

Research perspectives

Randomized controlled trials are expected to be conducted to measure the effect of counseling of the patients with colorectal cancer and their spouses.