Malnutrition and Nutrition Impact Symptoms in Head and Neck Cancer Patients

Improve nutritional status and reduce mortality. Nutrition impact symptoms (NIS) are commonly found within head and neck cancer (HNC) patients. As a result, patients were at risk of nutritional deficiency and mortality. Thus, the purpose of this study is to determine the association between socio-demographic background, lifestyle factors, medical characteristics, nutritional status and malnutrition status with NIS among HNC patients in Institut Kanser Negara (IKN), Putrajaya, Malaysia. A total of 66 eligible respondents that were diagnosed with head and neck cancer and admitted to IKN were recruited to participate in the cross sectional-study. Data collected included socio-demographic characteristics, malnutrition status and NIS. The validated scored Patients Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) and Head and Neck Patient Symptom Checklist (HNSC) were used to determine malnutrition status and NIS respectively. The mean age of respondents was 53 years old. NIS was developed among 89.4% of respondents with at least one symptom. Based on PG-SGA, there were 90.9% of respondents moderately malnourished and 7.6% of respondents severely malnourished. It was found that 72.8% of respondents experience weight loss. Malnutrition was associated with NIS (r = 0.848, p = 0.000) Malnutrition was prevalent among HNC patients, and was associated with the presence of NIS. This indicates the need for attention and care in providing appropriate intervention to reduce NIS and further malnutrition.