Concordance of the World Health Organization, Oral Assessment Guide, and Tardieu Scales for Assessment of Oral Mucositis and Oral Disorders in Palliative Care Patients.

Background: Oral disorders affect function, nutrition, and well-being in palliative care (PC) patients. Existing measures focus on patients actively treated for cancer, with no validated tools for PC populations. Objectives: To evaluate the concordance between the Oral Assessment Guide (OAG), Tardieu scale (Tardieu) and World Health Organization mucositis scale (WHO) for assessing oral disorders. Design: This study was part of a secondary analysis of a prospective, open-label, single-center, phase II study involving adult PC patients with cancer or noncancer diagnoses who could swallow and had a life expectancy of more than one week. Results: A total of 837 assessments were conducted in 77 patients. Strong correlations were observed between OAG, Tardieu, and WHO scores. The OAG had better agreement with WHO, showing a symmetric score distribution without outliers. Conclusion: Both OAG and Tardieu scales are effective for assessing oral disorders in PC, but OAG's simplicity, brevity, and ability to assess individual disorders make it preferable. Further validation in PC is recommended. Study registration: The study protocol was prospectively registered at ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04911335.