title: Oral and general health-related quality of life in patients treated for oral cancer compared to control group.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  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.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
  
  
  RESULTS
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  At least 6 months after treatment, oral cancer patients had worse OHRQoL, worse physical HRQoL and similar psychological HRQoL than the general population.
authors.affiliation: Research Fellow of the Spanish Ministry of Education, School of Dentistry, University of Granada, c/Llanete del Mercado n 5, 23680, Alcalá la Real, Jaen, Spain. rbarrios@ugr.es.|Preventive and Community Dentistry, School of Dentistry, University of Granada, C/Campus Cartuja s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain. rbarrios@ugr.es.
authors.forename: Rocío
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Barrios
authors.affiliation: Preventive and Community Dentistry, School of Dentistry, University of Granada, C/Campus Cartuja s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain. mbravo@ugr.es.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bravo
authors.affiliation: Special Care in Dentistry and Gerodontology, School of Dentistry, University of Granada, C/Campus Cartuja s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain. jagil@ugr.es.
authors.forename: Jose Antonio
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Gil-Montoya
authors.affiliation: Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon, Servicio de Cirugía Maxilofacial, Hospital Universitario "Virgen de las Nieves", Avenida de las Fuerzas Armadas, 2, 18014, Granada, Spain. imartinezlara@yahoo.es.
authors.forename: Ildefonso
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Martínez-Lara
authors.affiliation: Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon, Servicio de Cirugía Maxilofacial, Hospital Universitario "Virgen de las Nieves", Avenida de las Fuerzas Armadas, 2, 18014, Granada, Spain. blasmaxilo@yahoo.es.
authors.forename: Blas
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: García-Medina
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Dental Public Health, Institute of Epidemiology and Health, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London, WC1E6BT, UK. g.tsakos@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tsakos
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D009909:Oral Health; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires