Predictors of health-related quality of life in Serbian patients with head and neck cancer

• Miloš Čanković ^[3] ; Milan Tešić ^[1] ; Marija Jevtić ^[4] ; Dejan Stevanović ^[5] ; Milan B Jovanović ^[2] ; Dejan Kostić ^[6] ; Jadranka Antić ^[7] ; Sanja Krejović Trivić ^[2]
  1. [1] Military Medical Academy

     Military Medical Academy

     Serbia

     
  2. [2] University of Belgrade

     University of Belgrade

     Serbia

     
  3. [3] University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Medicine; Dentistry Department, Oral medicine section, Novi Sad, Serbia
  4. [4] University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Medicine; Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia
  5. [5] Clinic for neurology and psychiatry for children and youth, Belgrade, Serbia
  6. [6] University of Defense, Faculty of Medicine of Military Medical Academy; Military Medical Academy, Institute of Radiology, Belgrade, Serbia
  7. [7] 0University Clinical Center of Serbia, Clinic for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Disease, Department of Endocrine tumors, Belgrade, Serbia

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• Localización: Medicina oral, patología oral y cirugía bucal. Ed. inglesa, ISSN-e 1698-6946, Vol. 27, Nº. 4 (July), 2022
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The aim of this study was to identify predictors of the Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in patients with head and neck cancers (HNCs).

    In total, 345 patients with HNCs were interviewed. A self-report questionnaire was administered to collect data about demographic characteristics, health status, smoking, alcohol consumption habits, and HRQoL. It were used the EORTC Instruments - Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30-questions (QLQ-C30), Quality of Life Questionnaire - Head and Neck Module 35-questions (QLQ-H&N 35) and OHIP-14 instrument for HRQoL assessments. Clinical information and treatment data were collected from medical records.

    Five groups of HRQoL predictors were identified: demographic, socioeconomic, behavioral, psychophysical, and clinical/treatment. These HRQoL predictors had a strong (i.e., age, level of social support and social contact, level of education, depression, fatigue, presence of gastrostomy, comorbidities, and use of pain medications and supplements), a moderate (i.e., marital status, smoking, sexuality problems, time since diagnosis, presence of tracheostomy, and side effects outcomes of radio and chemotherapy) and a small impact (i.e., employment/financial difficulties, tumor site and stage, and surgical procedure).

    Study identified nineteen predictors that had significant, moderate and small impact on the HRQoL of patients with HNCs. Some of the predictors, like levels of social support and social contact, depression, and comorbidities could be targets for innervations to improve HRQoL.