Oral Health and Quality of Life in Individuals With Childhood Cancer: A Report of Patients and Caregivers

Objectives: To assess the impact of oral health on the quality of life (QoL) of patients with cancer, aged 5 to 18 years, who had been assisted in a referral hospital in the city of João Pessoa-Brazil. The reports of both patients and caregivers were also compared.
Methods: The sample consisted of patients assisted from September/2013 to September/2014 and their respective caregivers (n=71). Data were collected through the socioeconomic questionnaire of the national survey on oral health (SBBrasil 2010) and through the PedsQL-3.0, and subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: The caregivers’ report showed a mean QoL score lower than that of the patients’ (p-value=0.017). Concerning the age group, there was no difference in the mean (p-value=0.604) in the range 5-7 years (n=16), while for 8-18 years (n=55) the mean obtained in the self-report was higher than that of the caregivers (p-value=0.013). When the means of each domain were evaluated, we observed differences in the domains "anxiety about the procedures" (p-value=0.008) and "anxiety about the treatment" (p-value=0.005). When both age groups were evaluated separately, only the 8-18 years group was found to show significant difference for these same domains. After categorizing the means of self-reported QoL, we found associations indicating unimpaired QoL in children living in the greater João Pessoa area (p-value=0.045), aged 8-18 (p-value=0.008), who reported neither having had toothache in the previous six months (p-value=0.043) nor teeth-related situations, such as: discomfort to brushing (p-value=0.028), nervousness (p-value=0.014), stop hanging out (p-value=0.019), stop practicing sports (p-value=0.028), difficulty to speak (p-value=0.047), embarrass when smiling (p-value = 0.028), and difficulty to study (p-value=0.002).
Conclusions: The reports of patients and caregivers differ in the age group 8-18 years, and that caregivers experience greater anxiety about procedures and treatment. A lower impact in the reports on oral health was associated with unimpaired QoL.