Correlation between symptom groups and quality of life in patients with oral cancer after surgery

Objective To investigate the symptoms of patients with oral cancer during treatment, and explore the types of symptom groups and their correlation with quality of life. Methods Totally 201 patients with oral cancer after surgery were selected as the subject from a ClassⅢ Grade A hospital using convenient sampling and investigated with the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory for Head and Neck cancer (MDASI-HN) and University of Washington Quality of Life Questionnaire (UW-QOL) , and explore the relationship between them. Results Totally 189 patients completed the questionnaire. Patients with oral cancer showed many symptoms during the progression and treatment of the disease. Serious symptoms included swallowing, chewing and speaking. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three symptom groups, namely, oral and throat symptom group, drowsiness-digestive tract symptom group, and fatigue-respiratory symptom group. The scores of different dimensions and the total scores of quality of life were negatively correlated with the total scores of the three symptom groups (P<0.05) . Conclusions There are multiple symptom groups in patients with oral cancer during postoperative rehabilitation, which seriously affect their quality of life. Medical workers should grasp this characteristic, evaluate symptoms in time, actively manage symptom groups, and improve the quality of life of patients. Key words: Oral neoplasms; Quality of life; Symptom group; Symptom management