Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Background
health-related quality of life (HRQOL) represents a secondary endpoint of medical interventions in oncological patients. Our aim was to highlight potential sources of bias that could be encountered when evaluating HRQOL in oral cancer patients.Methods
this review followed PRISMA-ScR recommendations.Participants
patients treated for oral cancer.Concept
HRQOL assessed by EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-H&N35/QLQ-H&N43. A critical appraisal of included studies was performed to evaluate the accuracy of data stratification with respect to HRQOL determinants.Results
overall, 30 studies met the inclusion criteria, totaling 1833 patients. In total, 8 sociodemographic (SDG) and 15 disease/treatment-specific (DT) HRQOL determinants (independent variables) were identified. The mean number of the independent variables was 6.1 (SD, 4.3)-5.0 (SD, 4.0) DT-related and 1.1 (SD, 1.8) SDG-related variables per article. None of the included papers considered all the identified determinants simultaneously.Conclusions
a substantial lack of evidence regarding HRQOL determinants was demonstrated. This strongly weakens the reliability of the reported findings due to the challenging presence of baseline confounding, selection, and omitted variable biases. The proposed approach recommends the use of further evaluation tools that gather more variables in a single score together with a selection of more homogeneous, reproducible, and comparable cohorts based on the identified baseline confounding.
SUBMITTER: De Cicco D
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8431462 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature