- Title
- Early screening in patients with head and neck cancer identified high levels of pain and distress
- Creator
- Maher, Nigel Gordon; Britton, Benjamin; Hoffman, Gary Russell
- Relation
- Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Vol. 71, Issue 8, p. 1458-1464
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joms.2013.02.009
- Publisher
- W. B. Saunders
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2013
- Description
- Purpose: Pain and distress are recognized as the fifth and sixth vital signs in cancer care, respectively, as debilitating symptoms that are frequently under-recognized. The aim of this study was to document, using touch-screen technology, levels of pain and distress in patients with head and neck cancer before their assessment at a head and neck multidisciplinary referral clinic. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study over a 4-year period (2008 through 2011) was conducted for patients attending a head and neck oncology multidisciplinary team clinic in the Hunter New England referral district of Australia. Predictor variables were cancer stage and site. Cancer sites divided into 8 different regions, with distinction made for cutaneous versus noncutaneous sites. Outcome variables consisted of pain and distress levels. Pain was assessed using a Numerical Rating Scale of 0 to 10, and distress was assessed using the Distress Thermometer and PSYCH-6 scales. In the context of a screening study and for statistically comparing pain with other variables, pain was regarded as any score higher than 0. Clinically significant distress represented a Distress Thermometer score higher than 3 and a PSYCH-6 score of at least 3. Data analysis consisted of descriptive statistics, variance contrasts, and 2-tailed Pearson correlations. Results: Four hundred thirty-six patients were included in the study, with an equal number of cutaneous and noncutaneous cancer sites. Thirty-four percent of patients reported having pain, and 13% had clinically significant distress. Tumor stage did not significantly affect pain or distress scores. Conclusions: There is a high level of pain and distress reported by patients with head and neck cancer before their assessment and management is discussed.
- Subject
- early screening; head and neck cancers; pain levels
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1299771
- Identifier
- uon:19938
- Identifier
- ISSN:0278-2391
- Language
- eng
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