A study to assess the effectiveness of honey on chemo-radiotherapy induced oral mucositis in head and neck cancer patients in GGSM hospital, Faridkot

Cancer is a group of more than 200 disease characterized by uncontrolled and unregulated growth of cells. It is a major health problem that occurs in people of all ethnicities.

This study is intended to assess the effectiveness of honey on chemo-radiotherapy induced oral mucositis in head and neck cancer patients.

A quasi experimental study pre test post test research design was chosen for this study. Convenient sampling technique was used to select 60 patients of head and neck cancer having chemo-radiotherapy induced oral mucositis. WHO oral mucositis grading scale was used to assess the anatomical, symptomatic and functional components of oral mucositis.

83.3% of the experimental study subjects had grade 1 oral mucositis followed by 10% with grade 2 and remaining 6.6% in grade 0 on 31^st day of observation whereas in control group 50% had grade 2 and grade 3 oral mucositis. Results concluded that honey was found to be effective in reducing the oral mucositis (χ² =50.00) with p value 0.00* (significant at p≤0.05).

The study concluded that honey brought a significant reduction in the chemo-radiotherapy induced oral mucositis in head and neck cancer patients.