Clinical trial NCT04932317: Oral Symptom Assessment Scale (OSAS): Validity and Reliability
Official title: Oral Symptom Assessment Scale (OSAS): Validity and Reliability
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Neoplasms
Keywords: Oral health
Oral care
Neoplasms
Palliative care
Lead sponsor: Our Lady's Hospice and Care Services
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: University of Dublin, Trinity College
First posted: 2021-06-21
Enrollment: 54
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Patients with advanced cancer admitted to a specialist palliative care in-patient unit

Brief summary: Oral (mouth) symptoms are very common and often bothersome in patients with cancer. The best way to assess these symptoms is using a patient-rated symptom assessment scale. A new symptom assessment scale for oral symptoms has been developed and already tested in patients. The purpose of this study is to test the scale again to make sure it is reliable and accurate.

Detailed description: Oral health is multifaceted and includes an individual's ability to speak, eat as well as to convey emotion without pain, embarrassment or discomfort. Oral health contributes to an individual's general well-being.

Poor oral health in patients with advanced cancer can be associated with negative impacts on an individual's quality of life in terms of psychological and emotional distress (e.g. avoiding social interactions due to embarrassment) and physical distress (e.g. pain associated with mucositis). As well as this certain problems can be associated indirectly with mortality in patients with advanced cancer e.g. oral infection leading to systemic infection.

In patients with advanced cancer oral symptoms are common, often multiple and of high-impact. Routine screening for oral symptoms should be undertaken in all patients with advanced cancer in conjunction with regular examination of the oral cavity to ensure correct diagnosis and adequate treatment.

A novel oral symptom assessment scale (OSAS) was designed and developed to measure the frequency, severity and distress (or bother) of twenty oral symptoms in patients with advanced cancer. This initial observational study provided provisional validation of the new assessment tool.

This study aims to further investigate the reliability and validity of this novel oral symptom assessment tool in patients with advanced cancer. Test-retesting will occur in patients deemed clinically stable. Test- retesting will be undertaken to measure reliability on two occasions 24-48 hours apart. Recruited patients will be asked to fill in the OSAS as well as the EORTC QLQ- C30 and EORTC QLQ-OH15 (a validated quality of life assessment with an oral health module) which will provide criterion (concurrent) validity.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria

* Any cancer diagnosis
* Age ≥ 18 years old
* Able to understand and speak English
* Signed witnessed consent form
* In the 'Stable' clinical phase

Exclusion Criteria

* In the judgement of the Palliative Care physician, study participation is not appropriate
* Unable to complete the study assessments in entirety i.e. in full at Time 1 ( 0 hours) and at Time 2 (24 hours later)
* In the 'Unstable', 'Deteriorating' or 'Terminal' clinical phase

Primary outcomes:
measure: To measure the reliability of the oral symptom assessment scale (i.e assess if any change)
timeFrame: Measured at Time 1 ( Time 1 = 0 hours ) and Time 2 (Time = 24 hours later)
measure: To measure the concurrent validity of the OSAS against the EORTC QLQ-OH15
timeFrame: Measured at Time 1 ( Time = 0 hours)
measure: To measure ease of use
timeFrame: Measured at Time 1 ( Time = 0 hours)
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
measure: Ease of answering questionnaire
timeFrame: At Time 1 only ( Time 1 = 0 hours)
Locations:
city: Dublin
country: Ireland
facility: Our Lady's Hospice and Care Services
Study officials:
affiliation: Our Lady's Hospice, Harold's Cross, Dublin 6W Ireland
name: Andrew Davies, MB FRCP
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
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