Artikel
Identification of relevant aspects of functioning in patients after initial head and neck cancer (HNC) therapy – a worldwide expert survey
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Autoren
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Sven Becker
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery of the University of Munich, Munich, Germany
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Uta Tschiesner
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery of the University of Munich, Munich, Germany
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Alarcos Cieza
- Institute for Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Munich, Munich, Germany
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Alexander Berghaus
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery of the University of Munich, Munich, Germany
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Ulli Harréus
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery of the University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| Veröffentlicht: | 8. Juli 2008 |
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Gliederung
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Introduction: Patients after initial therapy of HNC often suffer from different physical and psychological problems what leads to an enormous decrease in quality of life. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, as adopted by the WHO in 2001, offers a comprehensive framework to describe functioning in these patients based on a bio-psycho-social model. The objective of this study was to evaluate functioning from the perspective of health professionals and to classify the results using the ICF as a reference.
Methods: A worldwide survey including health professionals from different professional backgrounds was conducted on a secure internet platform. The health professionals with at least 5 years of experience in HNC treatment were asked to answer five open questions concerning the relevant problems of patients after HNC therapy, one for each of the ICF components. After linking all the answers to the ICF descriptive analysis was performed.
Results: 103 participants from 27 countries (all WHO regions) with a mean age of 44.3 (SD: 8.9 years) and a mean professional experience in HNC of 17.3 years (SD: 8.3 years) participated in the study. 4315 items were translated into the ICF using 159 different, 2nd-level ICF categories. Table 1 [Tab. 1]
Conclusion: The ICF has proven to be a useful tool to describe functioning in HNC patients in a comprehensive way. In the future, rehabilitation of HNC patients should focus on the most often mentioned areas to improve functioning. As the shown data only reflects the meanings of health professionals further studies with HNC patients are necessary to get an impression of the relevant areas of functioning from their point of view.
