The Influence of Support Groups on Quality of Life in Head and Neck Cancer Patients

Objective. To compare quality of life in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients following treatment. Methods. The Short Form-36 Version 2 (SF-36v2) was utilized to measure patient quality of life. Results. For all 8 parameters measured by the SF-36V2, HNC patients had lower mean scores than the US population means. Support group patients had significantly worse scores than US population norms in role-physical, social functioning, and role-emotional. There were no significant differences between support group and control patients for the 8 parameters measured by the SF-36v2. Conclusions. HNC patients report significantly worse quality of life than US population norms in several physical and emotional areas. Our study did not demonstrate improved quality of life for support group patients. The increased incidence of oropharyngeal cancer and chemotherapy treatment in the support group patients in our study were factors which were likely to have lowered the overall scores in these patients.