Association between mid-upper arm circumference and functional status in patients with advanced cancer

Abstract

Background Patients with advanced cancer suffer from various physical and psychosocial distresses. With disease progression, anorexia was also a common symptom of distress in cancer patients. Eventually, prolonged anorexia and poor nutrition leads the deterioration of patients' performance statuses and quality of life as disease progress.

Aims This study aimed to identify direct correlations between performance status, symptom burden and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC).

Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted with 200 patients between March 2016 and January 2019 at a tertiary cancer center in Korea.

Results A total of 65.5% of patients were on chemotherapy at enrollment, and 89.5% of the patients had a Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS) of 70% or higher. Six items of the Korean Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (K-ESAS) (pain, fatigue, nausea, drowsiness, loss of appetite and feelings of wellbeing) showed a statistically significant negative correlation with MUAC (P<0.01) in the univariate analyses. Conversely, body mass index and KPS had a positive correlation with MUAC (P<0.01) in the univariate analyses. Finally, the KPS was significantly associated with the following three variables in the multivariate analysis: fatigue (P<0.01), feelings of wellbeing (P<0.01) in the K-ESAS and upper MUAC ≥26.5 cm group (P<0.01).

Conclusion The KPS had a significant relationship with MUAC, fatigue and feelings of wellbeing. Our study suggests that MUAC, as a simple and noninvasive tool played a vital role in functional statuses in patients with advanced cancer.