Investigation of the Prevalence of Oral Mucositis and Associated Risk Factors in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients: A Prospective Cross-Sectional Study

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of oral mucositis in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients and the risk factors likely to be effective in the development of oral mucositis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This prospective cross-sectional study was carried out with 147 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who were monitored for 7 days from their admittance to the chest diseases clinic of a university hospital between January 2021 and January 2022. Patient Information Form, Oral Assessment Guide, and World Health Organization Mucositis Grading Scale were used to obtain the study data. RESULTS: While 81% of the patients in the study were male, the mean age was 64.6 ± 10.0 years, and the duration of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease diagnosis was 8.58 ± 6.52 years. In the study, while 61.9% of the total 147 patients monitored for 7 days had findings in favor of oral mucositis, the severity of oral mucositis and the mean total oral mucosa score of the patients were found to increase significantly in these 7 days of the monitoring period (P <.001). As per the logistic regression findings, the duration of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease diagnosis (95% CI 1.05-1.49; P =.010), the presence of medication use containing corticosteroids (95% CI 6.05-72.17; P <.001), and the amount of oxygen administered to the patient (95% CI 1.07-3.44; P =.029) were found to be significant risk factors associated with the development of oral mucositis. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that the severity of oral mucositis has a tendency to increase in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients from the third day of treatment, and oral care is critically important in patients, who are with a longer diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, who are treated with medications containing corticosteroids and who need high-intensity oxygen therapy.