Oral health-related quality of life and malnutrition in patients treated for oral cancer.
OBJECTIVE
This study examined whether oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) is associated with nutritional status in patients treated for oral cancer.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study was carried out on with patients treated for oral cancer at least 6 months after treatment. OHRQoL was measured using two questionnaires: Oral Impacts on Daily Performances (OIDP) and Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14); malnutrition risk was assessed through the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA). Multivariable regression models assessed the association between the outcomes (OIDP and OHIP-14) and the exposure (MNA), adjusting for sex, age, clinical stage, social class, date of treatment completion, and functional tooth units.


RESULTS
The final simple included 133 patients, 22.6 % of which were malnourished or at risk of malnutrition. More than 95 % of patients reported a negative impact on the OHRQoL for both measures used. Patients with malnutrition or risk of malnutrition had significantly worse OHRQoL than those with no malnutrition, even after adjusting for clinical and socioeconomic data (ß-coefficient = 8.37 (95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.42-15.32) with the OIDP and ß-coefficient = 2.08 (95 % CI 0.70-3.46) with the OHIP-14).


CONCLUSIONS
Being malnourished or at risk of malnutrition is an important longer-term determinant of worse OHRQoL among patients treated for oral cancer.
School of Dentistry, University of Granada, Campus Universitario 'La Cartuja' s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain, rbarrios@ugr.es.
Rocío
R
Barrios
Georgios
G
Tsakos
Blas
B
García-Medina
Ildefonso
I
Martínez-Lara
Manuel
M
Bravo
D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000209:etiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000628:therapy*; D009752:Nutritional Status; D009909:Oral Health / Q000592:standards*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires