The relationship between dental status and health-related quality of life in upper aerodigestive tract cancer patients

Although the oral sequelae of treatments for upper aerodigestive tract (UAD T) cancers have been well described, very little is known about the relatio nship between dental status and hearth-related quality of life (HRQL) in pa tients with UADT cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the hypot hesis that dental status is a predictor of HRQL in a sample of post-therape utic UADT cancer patients. A cross-sectional study design was used with a s ample of 188 subjects. HRQL was evaluated through the global domain of the EORTC QLQ-C30 instrument and data were collected on sociodemographic, disea se, treatment and dental status variables. Linear multiple regression analy sis was used to determine those variables with a significant independent as sociation with the HRQL. Two multivariate models were developed each contai ning age, gender, employment status, cancer site and disease stage, plus ei ther the dental status category "partially dentate with no prosthesis" (P/N P) (F-value for model = 7.31; P < 0.0001; r(2) = 0.20) which predicted a si gnificantly worse HRQL, or the dental status category "edentulous with pros theses" (E/WP) (F-value for model = 7.56; P < 0.0001; r(2) = 0.20) which pr edicted a significantly better HRQL. Furthermore, the P/NP group reported s ignificantly more "problems with their teeth" (ANOVA, P = 0.0004), signific antly more "trouble eating" (ANOVA, P = 0.024) and significantly more "trou ble enjoying their meals" (ANOVA, P = 0.01). Although the cross-sectional n ature of the data collection and the somewhat crude nature of the dental st atus variable limit inferences, the results of this study suggest that dent al status has an important effect on HRQL in post-therapeutic UADT cancer p atients. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.