Introduction: Malnutrition is associated with poorer outcomes following treatment for colorectal cancer (CRC). This study evaluates the relationship between nutritional status using scored Patient Generated-Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) with the validated European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer questionnaire (EORTC-QLQ C30) which consists of five functional scales, three symptoms scales and one item of global health/quality of life (QOL).
Methods: A total of 42 CRC patients at oncology outpatient clinics from two hospitals in Malaysia participated in the study from March 2011 to March 2012. The participants were classified as either well-nourished (PG-SGA A) or malnourished (PG-SGA B and C).
Results: The majority of patients were Chinese, male, with a mean age of 57.1 ± 9.8 years and had been diagnosed with stage 2 CRC. Well-nourished patients had statistically significantly better QOL scores on symptom scales: fatigue (p<0.001), nausea and vomiting (p<0.05), and pain (p<0.001) compared to malnourished patients. PG-SGA was strongly correlated with the main domains of the QOL: global health status (r = -0.395, p<0.05), fatigue (r = 0.816, p<0.001), nausea and vomiting (r = 0.730, p<0.001) and pain (r= 0.629, p<0.001). The better the nutritional status (lower total mean score of PG-SGA), the higher the QOL (high mean score of global health status).
Conclusion: The scored PG-SGA is suitable for use as a nutrition assessment tool to identify malnutrition and it is associated
with QOL among this population.
Key words: Chemotherapy, colorectal cancer patient, malnutrition, nutritional status, PGSGA score, quality of life
Study site: Oncology clinics, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Hospital Selayang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Malnutrition is common among patients with cancer and it is also associated with their negative health outcomes. Generally, cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy have a high risk of malnutrition, secondary to both the disease and the treatment. It is important that patients maintain a good nutritional status to improve the effects, and minimise the side effects of cancer treatment. A good nutritional status should be maintained for patients through nutritional intervention during cancer treatment. There appears to be no published studies on the effects of intense dietary counselling versus usual dietary care on the nutritional status of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients undergoing chemotherapy alone. Furthermore, there have been no randomised controlled trials (RC1) undertaken in Malaysia, where CRC is increasing. It is therefore important to undertake a RCT of a dietary and lifestyle counselling intervention of CRC outpatients undergoing chemotherapy.
Methods: The intervention study was an open (masking not used), prospective, and Rcr to examine the effects of intensive individualised dietary and lifestyle counselling on dietary intake and nutritional status in CRC patients undergoing chemotherapy. It was designed as an 8-week program of intensive, individualised dietary and lifestyle counselling followed up with another 8-week post-intervention period without dietary and lifestyle counselling, and compared to a control arm given the usual care. A total of forty-two participants took part in this study and were randomised into two groups, namely, the intervention group (IG) (n=22) and the control group(CG) (n=20) at Kuala Lumpur Hospital and SelayangHospital, Malaysia.
Results: In this study, 67% of CRC patients were malnourished at baseline. In the IQ the prevalence of malnutrition dropped from 72.7% at baseline to 27.3% eight weeks after the intervention. This repesents a large, and clinically meaningful shift. In the CG, the prevalence of malnutrition, or at risk of malnutrition, was still at 75% at the end of the sixteen weeks.
Conclusion: Intensive, individualised dietary and lifestyle counselling resulted in improved nutritional status in patients with CRC undergoing chemotherapy.
The objective of this study was to identify sociodemographic, work, living arrangement and lifestyle factors associated with morbidity of electronics women workers in selected factories in Selangor, Malaysia. The research design was a cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey. Most of the 401 respondents were young single Malay women. Morbidity was high as 85.5% of the women reported experiencing at least one chronic health problem, and 25.7% said that an illness or injury prevented them from carrying out normal activities within the last two weeks. Major acute illness symptoms were the common cold, backache, and diarrhoea while chronic health problems such as persistent headache, eye problems, menstrual problems, and persistent backache were also reported. After logistic regression, chronic health problems was significantly associated with room sharing; while illness that prevented normal activities within the last two weeks was significantly associated with overtime work and exercise. Further research is recommended to understand the complex inter-relationship between morbidity and working and living conditions.