title: Impact of a telehealth intervention on quality of life and symptom distress in patients with head and neck cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patients undergoing treatment for head and neck cancer commonly experience signicant changes in quality of life (QoL) and levels of symptom distress. It is not known if a telehealth intervention would mitigate these changes.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the impact of a telehealth intervention on QoL and symptom burden in patients undergoing initial treatment for head and neck cancers.
  
  
  METHODS
  A randomized clinical trial comparing the impact on QoL and symptom distress of telehealth intervention and standard care was conducted with 80 patients (45 treatment, 35 control) who had been diagnosed with head or neck cancer and were receiving 1 or more treatment modalities. Treatment group participants responded daily to symptom management algorithms using a simple telehealth messaging device. QoL was evaluated by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Head and Neck Scale (FACTHN) and symptom burden by the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (MSAS). Control group participants completed assessments while they received routine care.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the posttreatment phase, the telehealth participants had signicantly better scores than the controls for physical well-being (20.6 vs 17.0, P = .02) and trial outcome index (59.9 vs. 50.2, P = .04) on the FACT-HN, and total scores on the MSAS (0.9 vs. 1.2, P = .04).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The moderate sample size of 80 patients limits the power to measure more subtle impacts of the intervention.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Using telehealth to provide support to patients with head and neck cancer during the acute phase of treatment improved some aspects of posttreatment QoL and symptom burden.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
authors.forename: Mark P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Pfeifer
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. Ms Keeney is now with Big White Wall.
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Keeney
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery/Otolaryngology, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bumpous
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
authors.forename: Tara J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Schapmire
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Science, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA.
authors.forename: Jamie L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Studts
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. barbara.head@louisville.edu.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Head
keywords: head and neck cancer; quality of life; supportive oncology; telehealth
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