‘Quality of Life among Breast Cancer Patients in Yemen’ Brief Review

This paper is exactly the type of piece that will have a significant role in my review. While I would hope that studies would explore more than a single type of cancer, since QOL varies greatly by form of cancer, the fact that breast cancer is so prominent a form of cancer does make up for it, at least a bit. Similar to other studies, major areas of concern included income, education status, types of surgery, and years after diagnosis.

Firstly, I found the article’s discussion of the reasoning behind income level as a contributor towards QOL and contraction rate extremely interesting. To explicitly state malnutrition and poor air quality as causes for greater cancer rates was a new development to consider, as most papers simply left their reasoning at a blanket ‘poverty’ as being the reason. It is absolutely a consistent result that a greater income yields a greater QOL for patients, so there is not exactly a ton to expand upon in that regard.

Second, the findings of an increased education level bolstering total QOL was fairly consistent as well. What was intriguing, however, were the areas of QOL most greatly bolstered by increased education level. Prior to analyzing this study, I had assumed that an increased education level most greatly corresponded to a greater income, and as such, a greater QOL as a result of diminished financial stress (sort of similar to a ‘pseudo-income level’ QOL). However, the results finding increased education level serving as a force for greater social and functional well-being was not a conclusion that I had considered. Social well-being, at least, was fairly understandable, as schooling is a consistent source of camaraderie and shared experience. I’m unsure what to make of a greater functional well-being from an increased education level, however.

Also, similar to other studies, early diagnosis was a major contributor towards consistent treatment. While there isn’t much to add to this point, as I have discussed it ad nauseam, I would again take this study as motivation to proclaim the following: Be proactive! Everything becomes much easier if problems are to be diagnosed early.

There are a plethora of references I will be pursuing after this paper. Breast cancer in South-east Republic of Yemen, Cancer Incidence in Oman, and prevention and treatment of breast cancer in Cuba are of even greater interest to me, however. There still are, admittedly, around 4-5 other references I will be pursuing as a result of reading this paper.