Educational levels and delays in start of treatment for head and neck cancers in North-East India.

Manigreeva Krishnatreya,Tashnin Rahman,Amal Chandra Kataki,Mahesh Kumar,Gayatri Gogoi,Jagannath Dev Sharma,Pintu Nandy,Nazmul Hoque

doi:10.7314/apjcp.2014.15.24.10867

Manigreeva Krishnatreya, Tashnin Rahman + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.7314/apjcp.2014.15.24.10867

Copy DOI

Abstract

There are various patient and professional factors responsible for the delay in start of treatment (SOT) for head and neck cancers (HNC). This retrospective study was conducted on data for HNC patients registered at the hospital cancer registry in North-East India. All cases diagnosed during the period of January 2010 to December 2012 were considered for the present analysis. Educational levels of all patients were clustered into 3 groups; illiterates (unable to read or write), qualified (school or high school level education), and highly qualified (college and above). In the present analysis 1066 (34.6%) patients were illiterates, 1,869 (60.6%) patients were literates and 145 (4.7%) of all patients with HNC were highly qualified. The stage at diagnosis were stage I, seen in 62 (34.6%), stage II in 393 (12.8%), stage III in 1,371 (44.5%) and stage IV in 1,254 (40.7%) . The median time (MT) to the SOT from date of attending cancer hospital (DOACH) was, in illiterate group MT was 18 days, whereas in the qualified group of patients it was 15 days and in the highly qualified group was 10 days. Analysis of variance showed there was a significant difference on the mean time for the delay in SOT from DOACH for different educational levels (F=9.923, p=0.000). Educational level is a patient related factor in the delays for the SOT in HNCs in our population.

Highlights

Head and neck cancers constitute around 30% of all cancers in our population
Analysis of variance showed there was a significant difference on the mean time for the delay in start of treatment (SOT) from date of attending cancer hospital (DOACH) for different educational levels (F=9.923, p=0.000)
Are presented as percentages upto single decimal place and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was done to see whether there was any difference on the mean time for the delay in treatment start from DOACH for different educational levels

Summary

Introduction

Head and neck cancers constitute around 30% of all cancers in our population. The HNC are the cancers of the lip, oral cavity, tongue, tonsil, oropharynx, hypopharynx, nasopharynx, nose and para nasal sinus (PNS), larynx, parotids and the thyroid. The main reason for primary delay in seeking treatment for oral cancers in Indian population was due to patients themselves (Joshi et al, 2014). The main modalities of treatment for HNCs are surgery and radiotherapy (RT) alone or in combination. Chemotherapy (CT) alone usually plays an adjunct role in the treatment of HNCs and it is not the curative modality of treatment for cancers of the oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx and larynx with a role for chemoradiotherapy in primary management of HNCs (Lasrado et al, 2014). Other than delays in the SOT due to resource constraints, there are delays due to patient factors as well In this retrospective study, we have tried to see the influence of educational levels on the delay in the SOT from the date of attending cancer hospital (DOACH) in.

Materials and Methods

Results

Discussion