Barriers to Health Care Utilization and Quality of Life

Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer in the world and in Palestine. The use of different treatment options helped prostate cancer survivors to get cured or to live for longer periods of time. Because of the several complications of treatment modalities, issues related to quality of life (QOL) became highly important to help prostate cancer survivors to live and experience a higher level f quality of life. Many studies examined QOL of prostate cancer survivors and barriers to health care; but none was conducted in a developing country. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the level of QOL and to assess the barriers to health care utilization as perceived by prostate cancer survivors who live in Gaza Strip. Findings revealed that prostate cancer survivors living in Gaza Strip had lower QOL scores compared to those reported in the literature. Besides that, several barriers to health care utilization were reported by participants. Therefore, it is important for health care providers and health care policy makers to work on improving their QOL and removing barriers to health care utilization.