Modelling Benign Ovarian Cyst Risk Factors and Symptoms via Log-Linear Model

Abstract

Ovarian cancer among women is known as “The Silent Killer”. It is caused by the malignant ovarian cyst, which can spread to other organs if it is not treated at an early stage. Some are benign ovarian cyst which can be treated through medical procedures such as laparoscopic and laparotomy. The type of medical procedure that the patients have to undergo depends on the size of cyst. A few risk factors that can cause benign ovarian cyst are age, pregnancy, menopause and menstrual cycle. Apart from that, there are a few symptoms of benign ovarian cyst which are fever, nausea and abdominal pain, abdominal distension, dysmenorrhea and intermenstrual bleeding. The association between these 12 discrete categorical data variables (factors, symptoms, treatment and size) are measured using the log-linear analysis in this study. According to the analysis, the patients who have large benign ovarian cyst need laparoscopic procedure, while those with smaller cyst need either laparotomy procedure or they do not have to undergo any surgery at all. Among all of the factors, menopause gives the highest risk factor of benign ovarian cyst, followed by age, pregnancy and menstrual cycle. Meanwhile, the interaction between nausea, abdominal pain and intermenstrual bleeding give the highest symptom rate to the benign ovarian cyst.