Adolescent ; Analysis of Variance ; Case-Control Studies ; Checklist ; Child ; Female ; Health Status* ; Humans ; Male ; Mental Disorders ; Neoplasms*/psychology ; Parents/psychology ; Quality of Life*/psychology ; Republic of Korea ; Self Concept ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Survivors/psychology*
Keywords
Childhood cancer ; Survivors ; Health-related quality of life ; Self-concept
Abstract
PURPOSE:
The purposes of this study were (1) to compare health-related quality of life (HRQoL) between Korean childhood cancer survivors and healthy controls and (2) to examine the impact of demographic, diagnosis/treatment, and psychological variables on physical and psychosocial health in survivors.
METHODS:
The HRQoL (PedsQL), Self-Concept Inventory, and Child Behavior Checklist were administered to childhood cancer survivors, age/gender-matched healthy counterparts, and their parents. Independent-samples t tests and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted.
RESULTS:
Compared with healthy controls, childhood cancer survivors reported significantly lower scores across physical and psychosocial HRQoL. For survivors, demographic, diagnosis/treatment, current health status, and psychological variables explained more than 50 % of the variance in both subscales of HRQoL. Especially, self-concept, a psychological variable, explained a significant portion of the variance in physical and psychosocial HRQoL after controlling for cancer-related factors. Several cancer-related factors including time since treatment completion, having a history of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, multiple treatment modalities, and suffering from severe late effects also associated with specific dimension of HRQoL.
CONCLUSIONS:
Childhood cancer survivors do experience lower level of QoL and psychological factors, especially self-concept, should be considered when supporting the well-being of childhood cancer survivors.