Onakoya Paul A, Nwaorgu Onyekwere G, Adenipekun Adeniyi O, Aluko Akeem A, Ibekwe Titus S
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University College Hospital, PMB 5116, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.
J Natl Med Assoc. 2006 May;98(5):765-70.
The aim was to assess the psychosocial effects on the quality of life (QOL) of adults with head and neck cancer (HNC) and any gender variations with predictive factors that may influence QOL.
This was a three-month descriptive and prospective evaluation of QOL in 50 adult patients with HNC who were still on treatment but had spent a period of at least four weeks from commencement in a tertiary hospital.
There were 32 males and 18 females with a mean age of 47.74 years. Females had higher mean scores than males in all domains except pain domain, global and general questions. There was no significant difference in the mean score between the genders in all the domains: overall bother, overall satisfaction, response to treatment, site with QOL and health-related QOL (HRQOL). Pain domain correlated significantly with eating and emotion but weakly with stage of the disease. The predictive factor for overall bother was mainly emotion domain, while site of lesion with QOL was for overall satisfaction, response to treatment and HRQOL.
Pain, which is a major problem experienced by these patients with HNC, requires more attention by the caregiver in order to improve their QOL.
评估头颈癌（HNC）成年患者生活质量（QOL）的心理社会影响以及可能影响生活质量的预测因素中的任何性别差异。
这是一项对50例仍在接受治疗但已在三级医院开始治疗至少四周的成年头颈癌患者进行的为期三个月的生活质量描述性和前瞻性评估。
有32名男性和18名女性，平均年龄为47.74岁。除疼痛领域、整体和一般问题外，女性在所有领域的平均得分均高于男性。在所有领域中，男女平均得分无显著差异：总体困扰、总体满意度、对治疗的反应、生活质量部位和健康相关生活质量（HRQOL）。疼痛领域与饮食和情绪显著相关，但与疾病分期相关性较弱。总体困扰的预测因素主要是情绪领域，而生活质量部位与总体满意度、对治疗的反应和健康相关生活质量相关。
疼痛是这些头颈癌患者面临的主要问题，护理人员需要更多关注以改善他们的生活质量。
