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Psychosocial and emotional adjustment for children with pediatric cancer and their primary caregivers and the impact on their health-related quality of life during the first 6 months

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Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate caregiver-reported psychosocial adjustment and health-related quality of life (HrQoL) of Taiwanese children with newly diagnosed cancer and their caregivers during the first 6 months of treatment.

Methods

Caregivers of 89 newly diagnosed children completed the child behavior checklist, the pediatric quality of life inventory (PedsQL™ 4.0), the Parenting Stress Index, and the SF-36 questionnaire at diagnosis, and again 3 and 6 months into treatment. They were compared with a group of age- and sex-matched controls from general community.

Results

Significantly worse HrQoL in both children and their caregivers and greater parenting stress were noted in the cancer group than the controls during the first 6 months. Children with cancer were found to have significantly more internalizing behavioral problems and somatic complaints, especially those younger than 12 years old. After starting chemotherapy, significant decrease in parenting stress and improvements of both caregivers and children’s HrQoL were noted within the first 6 months, although not to the level comparable with normal controls.

Conclusions

Although children and their caregivers can adjust themselves gradually during the first 6 months after diagnosis of cancer, intervention and efforts aimed at reducing their distress and promoting adjustments are still required during this period.

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Abbreviations

HrQoL:

Health-related quality of life

CBCL:

The child behavior checklist

PSI:

Parenting stress index

SES:

Socioeconomic status

PedsQL™ 4.0:

The pediatric quality of life inventory™ version 4.0

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Acknowledgments

Statistical analyses were done by Pro. Chang Chee-Jen (e-mail:cjchang@mail.cgu.edu.tw). We declared no conflict of interest for each authors and no funding about this work. We thank all nursing staff working in our Pediatric Hematology/Oncology ward for taking care of these patients.

Conflict of interest

None of the sponsors played any role in the study design, the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to submit it for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Department of Pediatrics, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan

    Ming-Horng Tsai, Chao-Ping Yang, Tang-Her Jaing & Iou-Jih Hung

  2. Division of Child Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Wen-Jiun Chou

  3. Division of Pediatric Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan

    Yu-Shu Huang

  4. Department of Child Psychiatry and Sleep Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, 5, Fu-Shing St., Kwei-Shan, Taoyuan, 333, Taiwan

    Yu-Shu Huang

  5. College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan

    Ming-Horng Tsai, Jen-Fu Hsu, Chao-Ping Yang, Tang-Her Jaing, Iou-Jih Hung, Hsuan-Rong Huang & Yu-Shu Huang

  6. Chang Gung Institute of Technology, Chiayi, Taiwan

    Ming-Horng Tsai & Hwey-Fang Liang

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  1. Ming-Horng Tsai
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  9. Yu-Shu Huang
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Correspondence to Yu-Shu Huang.

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Tsai, MH., Hsu, JF., Chou, WJ. et al. Psychosocial and emotional adjustment for children with pediatric cancer and their primary caregivers and the impact on their health-related quality of life during the first 6 months. Qual Life Res 22, 625–634 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-012-0176-9

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