Determination of Disease-Related Risk Factors, Malnutrition Status, and Quality of Life of Individuals Receiving Treatment for Head and Neck Cancer: A Case-Control Study

Abstract

Background

This study aimed to investigate disease-related risk factors, malnutrition status, and life quality of individuals receiving treatment for head and neck cancer.

Methods

This study which was done at a private hospital for 1 year, was comprised of 42 individuals, with 21 head and neck cancer patients (PG) and 21 controls (CG). Anthropometric measurements were taken, and biochemical parameters were analyzed. The NRS-2002 test was applied to assess malnutrition status. The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Head and Neck Module (EORTC-QLQ-H&N-35) were used to determine individuals’ life quality.

Results

Smokers were 10.264 times more likely to develop the disease than nonsmokers. When serum albumin level increased by 1 unit, the risk of the disease decreased by 32.8%. Results indicated that patients with a risk of malnutrition exhibited statistically significant levels of pain, verbal communication, social-eating, sexuality, limited mouth-opening capacity, and weight-loss compared to those without a risk of malnutrition (p < 0.05).

Conclusion

Malnutrition status of individuals was found to affect quality of life. Smoking and low serum albumin levels have been found to be risk factors for head and neck cancer.

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank the participants and hospital staff for their contributions and support for this study.

Author Contributions

Nural Erzurum ALİM designed to study, contributed to the analysis of the data. Nisa Nur Ücebakan was responsible for conducting the study, data collection and analysis, Osman Tuğrul Güzeldir contributed to data collection. NNÜ and NEA did interpretation and drafting of manuscript. NEA made a critical revision, development of the manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data Availability Statement

Due to the nature of the research, due to ethical supporting data is not available.

Additional information

Funding

There is no funding or financial support for this study.