Detection of malnutrition status and cancer lonely, psychological strength, quality of life, and flavor change in patients taking chemotherapy

The aim of this study was to determine the malnutrition status and cancer loneliness, psychological resilience, quality of life and taste changes in patients receiving outpatient chemotherapy. A total of 610 (296 males, 314 females) volunteers between the ages of 19 and 65 who received outpatient chemotherapy treatment participated in the study. The data of the participants were collected through a face-to-face questionnaire prepared by the researcher. General information of individuals, anthropometric measurements, biochemical findings, questions about nutritional habits, disease information, malnutrition status (Patient Focused Subjective Global Assessment PG-SGA), loneliness (Cancer Loneliness Scale), resilience (Cancer Psychological Resilience Scale), quality of life ( Nutritional status [food consumption record and Healthy Eating Index-2015 (SYI-2015)] were evaluated with the Quality of Life Scale (EORT QLQ-C30), Taste Changes [Chemotherapy-Induced Taste Alteration Scale (K-TADS)]. 48.5% of individuals are male and 51.5% are female. The body weights of the patients were 2.0% underweight, 37.0% normal, 40.5% slightly overweight, 21.0% obese. 70.9% of men and 70.7% of women have severe malnutrition. The highest mean scores of Cancer Psychological Resilience and PG-SGA (13.8±6.2, 21.7±6.7, respectively) were found in the individuals in the bad diet group, and the mean score of the Cancer Loneliness Scale (29.3±15.66) was found in the patients in the diet group that needed improvement (p> 0.05). General Taste Changes, General Health, and Symptom Scale values were found to be significant predictors of severe malnutrition (p<0.05). For this reason, it will be beneficial to evaluate the feeling of loneliness, psychological resilience and taste changes, as well as malnutrition status, for the healthy progress of the treatment process and the increase in the quality of life of patients receiving outpatient chemotherapy. Key Words: Nutrition, cancer, chemotherapy, malnutrition, quality of life