EVALUATION OF DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS AND LIFE QUALITY OF SOUTHERN IRAN PATIENTS WITH HEAD AND NECK CANCERS

Introduction: Head and neck cancers are among the most common diseases in the world, recording an increased number of patients. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the life quality of patients with head and neck cancer in Bandar Abbas, Iran. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 69 patients with head and neck cancer. Data was collected through a UW-QOL4 questionnaire, the demographic information including gender, age, education and job. Information about the disease, including its type, clinical stage, type of treatment applied and cancer site was obtained from patient's medical records. The results were analyzed using repeated measure analysis of variance with a SPSS-20 software, at a significance level below 0.05. Results and discussion: 53 of the participants (76.8%) were men; the mean age of patients was 59.1 +/- 13.31 years. The most affected area was the larynx (39.1%); a high percentage of patients were in stage 2 of the disease (44.9%). The mean score of patients' quality of life was 13.88 +/- 2.37 during the treatment and 14.78 +/- 2.06 after it, namely a statistically significant difference was recorded (P<0.0001). Conclusions: No significant difference between male and female patients was observed in terms of their quality of life, seen as lower during the treatment and improved after it. The problem most frequently mentioned by patients was swallowing, a better quality of life being observed in patients who underwent radiotherapy and chemotherapy.