Wuxi School of Medicine, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu, China.
Department of Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu, China.
Support Care Cancer. 2023 Jun 13;31(7):392. doi: 10.1007/s00520-023-07862-9.
Taste changes and vulnerability are commonly co-occurring in oncology patients undergoing chemotherapy. However, few studies explored the association and the inter-individual variability of these two conditions. This study aimed to identify heterogeneous subtypes of vulnerability and taste changes in older cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, and explore individuals' characteristics and risk factors.
In this cross-sectional study, the latent class analysis (LCA) was conducted to identify the heterogeneous subgroups of patients with distinct vulnerability and taste change profiles. Differences in sociodemographic and clinical characteristics among the subpopulation were evaluated using parametric and nonparametric tests. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to investigate predictors of taste change-vulnerability subgroup classification.
Three subgroups of those older cancer survivors were identified from the LCA: Class 1 (27.5%)-"Moderate taste change and low vulnerability", Class 2 (29.0%)-"Low taste change and moderate vulnerability", Class 3 (43.5%)-"High taste change and high vulnerability". 98.9% of Class 3 reported taste changes and 54.0% reported vulnerability. Results from multinomial logistic regression indicated that patients in Class 3 were more likely to report experiencing mouth dryness and high blood pressure, and have received more than 3 cycles of chemotherapy.
The findings could provide new insights into the association between taste changes and vulnerability in older cancer adults receiving chemotherapy. Identifying different latent classes of taste changes and vulnerability would be helpful for developing interventions tailored to the heterogeneous survivors.
味觉改变和脆弱在接受化疗的肿瘤患者中通常同时发生。然而,很少有研究探讨这两种情况的关联和个体间的可变性。本研究旨在确定接受化疗的老年癌症患者中味觉改变和脆弱的异质亚组,并探讨个体特征和危险因素。
在这项横断面研究中,采用潜在类别分析(LCA)来识别具有不同脆弱和味觉改变特征的患者的异质亚组。使用参数和非参数检验评估亚组间社会人口学和临床特征的差异。采用多项逻辑回归分析探讨味觉改变-脆弱亚组分类的预测因素。
通过潜在类别分析,确定了老年癌症幸存者的三个亚组:第 1 组(27.5%)-“味觉改变中度且脆弱程度低”,第 2 组(29.0%)-“味觉改变轻度且脆弱程度中度”,第 3 组(43.5%)-“味觉改变重度且脆弱程度高”。第 3 组 98.9%的患者报告味觉改变,54.0%的患者报告脆弱。多项逻辑回归结果表明,第 3 组患者更有可能报告口干和高血压,并接受了超过 3 个周期的化疗。
这些发现为接受化疗的老年癌症成年人中味觉改变和脆弱之间的关联提供了新的见解。确定不同的味觉改变和脆弱潜在类别将有助于为异质幸存者制定有针对性的干预措施。