127 7 Table 1. Baseline characteristics of patients with head and neck cancer that performed the 100 mL water swallow test based on all patients, and sub-groups of patients based on primary treatment CRT: Chemoradiotherapy, IQR: Interquartile range, n: number of patients, RT: Radiotherapy *: p<0.05, †: Kruskal-Wallis H test, ‡: chi-square test Swallowing over time The mean and standard deviation of the number of swallows needed to drink the 100 mL water at the different times of assessment are shown in Table 2. Linear mixed model analysis showed that the number of swallows increased from baseline to 3 months after treatment and decreased to baseline again at 6 months after treatment and beyond (Figure 2a). Primary treatment Variable All patients (n = 128) RT (n = 54) CRT (n = 33) Surgery (n = 25) Surgery with (C)RT (n = 16) p-value Age, median (IQR) 61.5 (11.3) 67.0 (15.0) 57.0 (12.5) 64.0 (17.5) 62.5 (16.3) 0.102† Sex n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) 0.090‡ Male 100 (78.1) 45 (83.3) 26 (78.8) 15 (60.0) 14 (87.5) Female 28 (21.9) 9 (16.7) 7 (21.2) 10 (40.0) 2 (12.5) Tumor stage <0.001*‡ I 34 (26.6) 16 (29.6) 0 15 (60.0) 3 (18.8) II 27 (21.1) 17 (31.5) 0 6 (24.0) 4 (25.0) III 15 (11.7) 9 (16.7) 3 (9.1) 2 (8.0) 1 (6.2) IV 52 (40.6) 12 (22.2) 30 (90.9) 2 (8.0) 8 (50.0) Tumor site <0.001*‡ Oropharynx 50 (39.1) 23 (42.6) 26 (78.8) 1 (4.0) 0 Larynx and Hypopharynx 42 (32.8) 31 (57.4) 6 (18.2) 4 (16.0) 1 (6.2) Oral cavity 36 (28.1) 0 1 (3.0) 20 (80.0) 15 (93.8) Primary treatment RT 54 (42.2) CRT 33 (25.8) Surgery 25 (19.5) Surgery with (C)RT 16 (12.5)
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