Well-being and coping in oral and pharyngeal cancer patients

Patients with oral and pharyngeal cancer often suffer serious functional impairments. To achieve a broader understanding of the patients' situation it is important to include their appraisal of present functioning. There may also be other factors of importance in the evaluation of well-being such as personality and coping. 42 patients with oral and pharyngeal cancer answered the Oral and Pharyngeal Nursing Care Questionnaires 12 months after treatment. The questionnaires contain 25 conditions (grouped as Therapy- or Psychosocial-related Conditions) from three perspectives: perceived severity, received support and received information. Other questionnaires included in the study were the Sense of Coherence Scale, Somatic Anxiety Scale (from the Karolinska Scale of Personality) and Health Index. The patients were classified with regard to the extensiveness of their surgery. Severe disturbances related to therapy were significantly correlated to weaker sense of coherence (r = -0.34), more anxiety (r = 0.31) and to worse feelings about general health (r = -0.37). The corresponding data with regard to severe disturbances related to psychosocial situation were r = -0.44, 0.52 and -0.65, respectively. There was no significant correlation between perceived severity and surgical extensiveness. The support and information concerning Psychosocial-related Conditions were evaluated as less than those concerning Therapy-related Conditions. The level of support and information was not significantly correlated to sense of coherence, anxiety, general health or surgical procedure. The patient's subjective appraisal of the seriousness of the circumstances connected with oral and pharyngeal cancer and its treatment is an important parameter in the care of these patients.