Prioritization of head and neck cancer patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective cohort study

Table 5 Mean wait times in HNC workup and treatment

	Preliminary analysis			Multivariate analysis
	Pre-pandemic group	Pandemic group	p-value (No Adjustment)	p-value (Adjustment A)	p-value (Adjustment B)	p-value (Adjustment C)
Date first seen by OTL-HNS Department until date first presented at tumor board, mean # days	38	25.1	0.001*	0.743	0.0009*	-
Date first seen by OTL-HNS Department until start date of definitive treatment, mean # days	76.6	48.7	0.0001*	0.799	0.012*	-
Date first biopsied until date of histopathological diagnosis, mean # days	14.1	9.9	0.142	-	-	-
Length of postoperative hospital stay, mean # days¹	6.4	5.9	0.358	-	-	-
Total package time (surgery + adjuvant radio/chemo), mean # days	112.7	80.2	0.035*	0.854	0.308	0.0001*
Total package time (surgery only), mean # days²	9.0	3.7	0.017*	0.156	0.031*	-
Total package time (radio/chemo only), mean # days	36.6	53.3	0.011*	0.403	0.079	0.046*

*Significant difference (p < .05)
¹“Length of postoperative hospital stay” is defined as the length of admission for all patients who received surgery regardless of whether they received adjuvant treatment
²“Total package time (surgery only)” is defined as the length of admission for patients who received only surgery without adjuvant treatment

ISSN: 1916-0216