Prevalence and risk factors of oral mucositis in paediatric patients undergoing haematopoietic stem cell transplantation

BACKGROUND: A complete understanding of oral mucositis (OM) is crucial to develop appropriate interventions to aid in the successful overall health outcome of paediatric patients undergoing haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). AIMS: This study aimed at determining the prevalence and severity of OM and at identifying the predictive factors that might aggravate OM at one‐week, two‐week and three‐week post‐HSCT. METHODS: This retrospective, hospital‐based study reviewed the medical records of 170 paediatric patients, summarising the patients’ characteristics using descriptive statistics. Binary logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with the development of OM. RESULTS: At one‐week post‐HSCT, 41% of 140 patients (n = 49) had developed OM, this was reduced at two‐week (n = 36, 33%) and three‐week (n = 13, 19%) post‐HSCT. Univariate logistic regression revealed that patients with cancer (OR = 0.16, 95% CI = 0.05–0.54; p‐value = .003) had a significantly lower prevalence of OM. Younger patients with an average age of 7.9 years old (OR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.75–0.97; p‐value = 0.013) and the presence of GvHD (OR = 2.37, 95% CI = 1.03–5.45, p‐value = 0.042) were significantly related to a higher prevalence of OM. Multivariable logistic regression confirmed that the risk of OM is lower in patients with cancer compared to those with immunodeficiency syndromes or hereditary blood diseases (OR = 0.18, 95% CI = 0.04–0.77; p‐value = .021). CONCLUSIONS: This study identified a significantly lower prevalence of OM in patients with cancer compared to other conditions and that young recipients and those who developed GvHD were more likely to have OM.