Table 3.

Hazard ratios (HR) for the influence of health behavior variables on tumor survival in HNSCC patients

Variable	HR overall survivala		HR progression free survivala		HR tumorspecific survivala
	(n = 263)	95 % CI	(n = 254)	95 % CI	(n = 261)	95 % CI
Dental care scoreb
Score 0–2	1.00	Ref.	1.00	Ref.	1.00	Ref.
Score 3–6 (poor care)	1.30	0.78–2.15	1.48	0.89–2.45	1.51	0.79–2.88
Mouthwash used
Mouthwash < 2 times/day	1.00	Ref.	1.00	Ref.	1.00	Ref.
Mouthwash ≥ 2 times/day	1.32	0.76–2.31	1.47	0.88–2.47	2.26	1.19–4.32
Oral health scorec
Oral health 0–5	1.00	Ref.	1.00	Ref.	1.00	Ref.
Oral health 6–7 (poor health)	1.05	0.69–1.60	1.11	0.74–1.67	0.85	0.47–1.54
Smoking log[pack-years + 1]
10 pack-years	2.05	1.17–3.61	1.89	1.11–3.24	1.72	0.83–3.56
20 pack-years	2.46	1.21–4.97	2.22	1.14–4.34	1.97	0.79–4.89
Smoking freq log[cigarettes + 1]
10 cigarettes/day	2.30	1.17–4.52	2.04	1.07–3.89	2.06	0.83–5.09
20 cigarettes/day	2.83	1.22–6.58	2.44	1.09–5.46	2.47	0.80–7.64
Drinking (drink-years) log[drinkyears + 1]
10 drink-years	1.59	1.14–2.24	1.53	1.10–2.11	1.90	1.21–2.99
20 drink-years	1.79	1.17–2.74	1.70	1.13–2.55	2.23	1.27–3.93
Drinking freq log[drinks + 1]
2 drinks/day	1.47	1.13–1.90	1.52	1.18–1.97	1.52	1.08–2.12
5 drinks/day	1.87	1.22–2.87	1.99	1.31–3.04	1.97	1.14–3.41

Bold numbers indicate statistically significant log rank tests and HR

Abbreviations: freq frequency, log logarithmic transformation, Ref reference

^aHazard ratios: Cox regression model adjusted for age, sex, tumor site, tumor stage, treatment, education, smoking, alcohol drinking, HPV status. Hazard ratios describe the risk of death, tumor progression or tumor specific death within the observational period; ^bincludes information on brushing teeth, use of floss, dentist visits ^cincludes information on wearing dentures, age at wearing dentures, gum bleeding; ^dindependent variable