Oral and general health-related quality of life in patients treated for oral cancer compared to control group

• Published in: Health and quality of life outcomes Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 9
• Main Authors: Barrios, Rocío, Bravo, Manuel, Gil-Montoya, Jose Antonio, Martínez-Lara, Ildefonso, García-Medina, Blas, Tsakos, Georgios
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 23.01.2015; BioMed Central
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Attitude to Health; Cancer patients; Care and treatment; Comparative analysis; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Health; Health Status; Health surveys; Humans; Male; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Middle Aged; Mouth cancer; Mouth Neoplasms - psychology; Mouth Neoplasms - therapy; Oral Health; Patient outcomes; Quality of Life - psychology; Social aspects; Surveys; Surveys and Questionnaires
• ISSN: 1477-7525; 1477-7525
• DOI: 10.1186/s12955-014-0201-5

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is gaining importance as a valuable outcome measure in oral cancer area. The aim of this study was to assess the general and oral HRQoL of oral and oropharyngeal cancer patients 6 or more months after treatment and compare them with a population free from this disease. A cross-sectional study was carried out with patients treated for oral cancer at least 6 months post-treatment and a gender and age group matched control group. HRQoL was measured with the 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12); oral HRQoL (OHRQoL) was evaluated using the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) and the Oral Impacts on Daily Performances (OIDP). Multivariable regression models assessed the association between the outcomes (SF-12, OHIP-14 and OIDP) and the exposure (patients versus controls), adjusting for sex, age, social class, functional tooth units and presence of illness. For patients (n = 142) and controls (n = 142), 64.1% were males. The mean age was 65.2 (standard deviation (sd): 12.9) years in patients and 67.5 (sd: 13.7) years in controls. Patients had worse SF-12 Physical Component Summary scores than controls even in fully the adjusted model [β-coefficient = -0.11 (95% CI: -5.12-(-0.16)]. The differences in SF-12 Mental Component Summary were not statistically significant. Regarding OHRQoL patients had 11.63 (95% CI: 6.77-20.01) higher odds for the OHIP-14 and 21.26 (95% CI: 11.54-39.13) higher odds for OIDP of being in a worse category of OHRQoL compared to controls in the fully adjusted model. At least 6 months after treatment, oral cancer patients had worse OHRQoL, worse physical HRQoL and similar psychological HRQoL than the general population.