+1 (629)348-3199Research Article - Journal of Public Health and Nutrition (2020) Volume 3, Issue 4
Malnutrition risk of patients with oral cavity cancer and other related factors at National Cancer Hospital 2018-2019.
Background and Objectives: Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients. In cancer, malnutrition is the common status in patients because of combination of undernourishment and in?ammation. In oral cavity cancer patients, malnutrition is becoming more and more common because of the localization of the tumor. The aim of this study is to evaluate the malnutrition risks and other related factors in patients with oral cavity cancer.
Methods and study design: The cross-sectional research was carried out with the participation of 220 patients aged 18 years and older from May 2018 to October 2019 in attempt to evaluate the malnutrition risk and pathological factors of oral cavity cancer cases.
Results: In accordance with the PG-SGA toolkit, while the percentage of patients facing mild and moderate malnutrition risk was 63.2%, that of severe malnutrition risk was 18.2%. Besides, 23.2% was malnourished as regard to BMI classification. Patients in stage IV had a higher possibility of malnutrition (4.71 times) than those in stage I (OR(95% CI):4.71(1.08-20.57)). The method of preparing food for patients by ordering ready-to-eat foods raised the malnutrition situation by 6.67 times in comparison with incorporating the hospital diet (OR(95% CI);6.67(1.68-26.44)). Additionally, losing more than 10% of weight within 6 months also made the proportion of malnourished patients grow higher than those who experienced whether weight gain or unchanged within 6 months, the results were statistically significant. Furthermore, people with gastrointestinal symptoms were many times more likely to suffer from malnutrition than those without, the findings were of statistical significance.
Conclusions: Oral cavity cancer patients posed a significant chance of malnutrition. Patients in late stage of disease, weight loss, gastrointestinal symptoms and non-compliance with pathological nutrition care were at greater risk of malnutrition than most cases.