Food and nutrition insecurity and clinical and anthropometric indicators in individuals with cancer eligible for radiotherapy.

OBJECTIVES

to analyze the association between food and nutrition insecurity (FNI) and sociodemographic, clinical, and anthropometric indicators in individuals with cancer eligible for curative radiotherapy.

METHODS

Study with the collection of sociodemographic and clinical data, and nutritional, anthropometric, and FNI assessment. Estimated Prevalence Ratio (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of FNI and exposure variables using the Poisson regression model with robust variance.

RESULTS

252 individuals were evaluated, 51.2% female, 60.7% elderly, 40.1% with breast or uterine cancer, 27.8% with urological cancer, 18.2% with head and neck cancer, and 7.5% with difficulty acquiring an enteral diet or nutritional supplement. The prevalence of FNI was 17.9%, 6.4% being moderate and 3.6% severe. FNI was less frequent in the high-income tertile (PR = 0,38; 95% CI: 0,18-0,79), and in individuals with urological tumors (PR = 0.12; 95% CI: 0.04-0.37), while higher prevalences were identified in non-white individuals (PR = 1,82; 95% CI: 1.01-3.28) among those with stage IV tumor (PR = 1.42; 95% CI: 1.03-1.95), with severe weight loss (PR = 2.99; 95% CI: 1.75-4.82), severely malnourished (PR = 2.58; 95% CI: 1.34-4.95) and bedridden (PR = 5.54; 95% CI: 2.72-11.29). Additionally, a higher prevalence of FNI associated with a reduction in usual food consumption (PR = 2.09; 95% CI: 1.24-3.54), the need to modify the consistency of the diet (PR = 3.45; 95% CI: 2.11-5.67), use of caloric supplements (PR = 2.07; 95% CI: 1.17-3.69) or enteral feeding (PR = 3.46; 95% CI: 2.01-5.94).

CONCLUSION

One in five individuals with cancer presented FNI associated with socioeconomic and nutritional vulnerability in the radiotherapy pre-treatment phase.