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.