Table 4.
Association between clinical variable and nutritional impact symptoms (NIS) and NIS interfering with oral intake, sum of total scores 1–5 in 17 items using the Head and Neck Patient Symptom Checklist© (HNSC©), and clinical variables at each follow-up in patients with head and neck cancer
| Follow-up at 7 weeks after start of treatment | Follow-up at 6 months after completion of treatment | Follow-up at 12 months after completion of treatment | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Estimate | Lower–upper (2.5–97.5%) | p-value | Estimate | Lower –upper (2.5–97.5%) |
p-value | Estimate | Lower–upper (2.5–97.5%) |
p-value | |
| NIS | |||||||||
| (Intercept)† | 25.38 | 13.69–37.07 | < 0.001 | 21.72 | 10.92–32.51 | < 0.001 | 23.15 | 12.20–34.11 | < 0.001 |
| Female* | 6.68 | 3.07–10.29 | < 0.001 | 3.56 | 0.16–6.96 | 0.040 | 3.23 | − 0.39–6.84 | 0.080 |
| Age (continuous) | − 0.09 | − 0.23–0.06 | 0.242 | − 0.02 | − 0.15–0.11 | 0.766 | 0.03 | − 0.16–0.11 | 0.713 |
| Stage III + IV† | 0.67 | − 2.86–4.21 | 0.708 | 3.75 | 0.55–6.95 | 0.022 | 2.93 | − 0.42–6.28 | 0.086 |
| Radiotherapy ± surgery‡ | 14.22 | 9.02–19.41 | < 0.001 | 5.67 | 0.86–10.47 | 0.021 | 3.34 | − 1.35–8.04 | 0.161 |
| Radiotherapy + chemotherapy or other pharmacological treatment ± surgery‡ | 19.30 | 13.12–25.48 | < 0.001 | 4.73 | − 0.96–10.42 | 0.103 | 2.01 | − 3.53–7.55 | 0.475 |
| Oropharyngeal cancer ≠ | 8.11 | 3.26–12.97 | 0.001 | 4.56 | 0.12–8.99 | 0.044 | 4.98 | − 0.02–9.99 | 0.051 |
| Oral cancer ≠ | 8.98 | 3.59–14.36 | 0.001 | 6.47 | 1.48–11.45 | 0.011 | 5.43 | − 0.17–11.02 | 0.057 |
| Other ≠ ˚ | 1.45 | − 4.53–7.42 | 0.633 | 1.20 | − 4.16–6.56 | 0.659 | 3.36 | − 2.57–9.29 | 0.265 |
| NIS interfering with oral intake | |||||||||
| (Intercept)† | 5.43 | − 11.27–22.12 | 0.522 | 10.03 | − 5.17–25.2 | 0.194 | 3.96 | − 9.31–17.22 | 0.556 |
| Female* | 5.42 | 0.18–10.66 | 0.043 | 3.42 | − 1.31–8.14 | 0.155 | 4.68 | 0.28–9.09 | 0.037 |
| Age (continuous) | − 0.05 | − 0.25–0.16 | 0.655 | 0.02 | − 0.21–0.16 | 0.810 | 0.05 | − 0.12–0.21 | 0.576 |
| Stage III + IV† | 3.41 | − 1.57–8.38 | 0.179 | 6.39 | 1.87–10.92 | 0.006 | 3.71 | − 0.35–7.78 | 0.073 |
| Radiotherapy ± surgery‡ | 15.43 | 7.96–22.90 | < 0.001 | 3.32 | − 3.94–10.58 | 0.367 | 2.52 | − 3.11–8.16 | 0.377 |
| Radiotherapy + chemotherapy or other pharmacological treatment ± surgery‡ | 19.36 | 10.52–28.19 | < 0.001 | 0.47 | − 8.04–8.98 | 0.913 | 0.21 | − 6.48–6.90 | 0.951 |
| Oropharyngeal cancer ≠ | 12.97 | 5.99–19.96 | < 0.001 | 5.00 | − 1.37–11.38 | 0.123 | 5.21 | − 1.19–11.60 | 0.110 |
| Oral cancer ≠ | 13.67 | 5.87–21.45 | 0.001 | 4.32 | − 2.82–11.46 | 0.233 | 5.06 | − 2.02–12.14 | 0.160 |
| Other ≠ ˚ | 2.35 | − 6.25–10.95 | 0.590 | − 1.47 | − 9.05–6.11 | 0.701 | 1.48 | − 5.94–8.90 | 0.694 |
†The intercept value is interpreted as the NIS/NIS interference with oral intake score of one patient with all clinical variables at reference levels. *Reference: male, †reference: stage I + II, ‡reference: surgery, ≠ reference: laryngeal cancer. ˚Hypopharyngeal cancer, cancer of unknown primary, salivary gland cancer, nasal and sinus cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, and cancer involving the external auditory canal
Association was estimated by multivariate linear regression with all clinical variables in the same models. Estimates were interpreted as actual increases in the sum of NIS scores (range 17–85) and the sum of NIS score interfering with oral intake (range 17–85)