Prospective study of the influence of psychological and medical factors on quality of life and severity of symptoms among patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma

About 400,000 people worldwide are diagnosed with oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) annually, and the incidence is increasing. Many advanced carcinomas of the oral cavity require radical surgical treatment that can impair patient's quality of life (QoL) and severity of symptoms. We therefore aimed to identify coping strategies and disease-specific medical factors that affect QoL and severity of symptoms. Patients with oral SCC were asked to complete the Freiburg Questionnaire on Coping with Illness (FQCI), the University of Washington Quality of life Questionnaire (UW-QOL version 4), and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) to measure psychological stress. We also assessed the impact of various factors on QoL and severity of symptoms, including stage and site of tumour, method of reconstruction, time of diagnosis, and social structure (age, sex, marital status, living arrangements, level of education, and employment). We enrolled a consecutive sample of 104 patients over a period of one year. Stepwise linear regression analyses indicated that both depressive coping and size of tumour had an adverse effect on QoL and severity of symptoms. Patients with high educational attainment and those who lived alone reported impaired QoL, and women experienced increased severity of symptoms. Impaired QoL and increased severity of symptoms were associated with a depressive style of coping, size of tumour, educational attainment, and living arrangements. It is important to identify these patients during treatment as they could benefit from psycho-oncological counselling.