Awareness, knowledge, and practice of performance status scale in the management of head and neck cancer patients among health-care providers in Edo state, Nigeria

Abstract

The roles of performance status scales (PSSs) are well-documented globally and is largely, routinely, and traditionally used in the management of cancer patients in the developed countries, but this is not true in developing countries, reason largely due to lack of awareness. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the level of awareness, knowledge, and practice of PSSs among medical practitioners in Edo state Nigeria. This descriptive cross-sectional study design recruited all medical practitioners that managed head and neck cancers (HNCs) (Family Dental Physicians, Otolaryngologist and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons) in Edo state between April 2019 and December 2019. Data were obtained using a self-administered questionnaire which was given to all the participants that gave written informed consent. The statistical analysis was done using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 21 (IBM, Chicago, Illinois, USA). One hundred and six of the 110 randomly distributed questionnaires were retrieved, given a response rate of 96.4%. The male-to-female ratio was 2.4:1.0. The mean age was 33.3 ± 5.30 years, ranging from 25 to 46 years. Most of the respondents were within the age range of 31–40 years, while the least numbers were over 40 years. Of the total 106 respondents, less than half (46.2%) had heard of PSS. More than two-third (73.6%) of the respondents had a general poor knowledge as regard PSS. More than half (53.8%) of the respondents answered that they have never used PSS in the course of managing HNC patient. The age, gender, years of practice, type of specialty, and location of practice were not related to the knowledge of PSS by the respondents (P > 0.05). There was a significant association between awareness of PSS before this study and the knowledge of PSS among the respondents (P = 0.02). Most Medical Practitioners that manage head and neck cancer patients lack awareness and knowledge of PSSs and hence poorly utilized in the management of patients in routine practice.