A scientometric study on research trends and characteristics of oral health-related quality of life among head and neck cancer patients

Background/purpose: With the evolving interest in patient-centered outcomes, assessing quality of life has become essential to cancer research and clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to analyze the scientometric characteristics and research trends of oral health-related quality of life (OHQL) among head and neck cancer (HNC) patients. Materials and methods: All the articles on OHQL among HNC patients were comprehensively retrieved from the Scopus database, with emphasis on the analysis of research keywords in different decades and disciplines. Results: There were 300 (57.3 %) and 224 (42.7 %) articles published by stomatologists and other scholars, respectively. Notably, 28 items for questionnaire such as swallowing, xerostomia, speech, pain, mastication, dysphagia, stomatitis, and fatigue were identified. As for distinctive keywords, alcohol consumption, dental procedure, denture, eating, mood, oral surgical procedures, psychological adaptation, saliva, and salivation were used more frequently by stomatologists. Antineoplastic agents, brachytherapy, diarrhea, deglutition disorders, dyspnea, dietary supplements, drug efficacy, etoposide, cyclophosphamide, functional status, glossectomy, nausea, nutritional support, patient-reported outcome, postoperative complication, surgical flaps, and vomiting were used more frequently by other scholars. After 2020, the focus of OHQL among HNC patients has shifted towards drug therapy, reconstruction, European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) and specific patient-reported outcomes such as diarrhea, dyspnea, insomnia, trismus, speech disorder, and malnutrition. Conclusion: This study elucidated the scientometric characteristics of OHQL among HNC patients, and proposed that multidisciplinary comprehensive management should be conducted to improve the patients' symptoms and quality of life.