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Assessing head and neck cancer patient outcome domains
Author(s) -
Karnell Lucy Hynds,
Funk Gerry F.,
Hoffman Henry T.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
head and neck
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.012
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1097-0347
pISSN - 1043-3074
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0347(200001)22:1<6::aid-hed2>3.0.co;2-p
Subject(s) - logistic regression , head and neck cancer , univariate , medicine , quality of life (healthcare) , odds , odds ratio , head and neck , univariate analysis , cancer , clinical psychology , physical therapy , multivariate analysis , surgery , multivariate statistics , statistics , mathematics , nursing
Background The purpose of this study was to assess the relative importance on patients' lives of multiple outcomes resulting from the management of head and neck cancer (HNC). Methods HNC patients filled out a disease‐specific quality of life (QOL) survey covering 5 domains (speech, eating, aesthetics, pain/discomfort, and social/role functioning). Logistic regression was used to determine which of these domains best predicted the patients' response to a single, overall QOL assessment. Results In univariate analyses, all 5 domains were significantly correlated to QOL ( p < .0001), with correlation coefficients ranging from .48 for eating to .64 for social/role functioning. Logistic regression indicated that speech and eating best predicted QOL ( R 2 = .4647), with odds‐ratios of 2.96 for speech and 2.49 for eating. Conclusions These data demonstrated that, for this group of patients, speech has the most impact on well‐being, whereas eating has a substantial, unrelated influence. This is important information in counseling patients about treatment plans that have different levels of impairment. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Head Neck 22: 6–11, 2000.