Impact of psychological and cancer-related factors on HRQoL for Korean childhood cancer survivors

• Published in: Quality of life research Vol. 23; no. 9; pp. 2603 - 2612
• Main Authors: Rhee, Myung Ah, Chung, Kyong Mee, Lee, Yuri, Choi, Hana K., Han, Jung Woo, Kim, Hyo Sun, Kim, Sun Hee, Shin, Yoon Jung, Lyu, Chuhl Joo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer 01.11.2014; Springer International Publishing; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Analysis of Variance; Behavior; Cancer; Case-Control Studies; Checklist; Child; Childhood; Chronic illnesses; Demography; Female; Gender; Health Status; Humans; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental Disorders; Neoplasms - psychology; Oncology; Parents - psychology; Pediatrics; Psychology; Public Health; Quality of life; Quality of Life - psychology; Quality of Life Research; Radiotherapy; Republic of Korea; Self Concept; Self esteem; Sociology; Surveys and Questionnaires; Survivors - psychology; Variables; Republic of Korea; Korea Strait; Self-concept; Health-related quality of life; Survivors; Childhood cancer
• ISSN: 0962-9343; 1573-2649
• DOI: 10.1007/s11136-014-0709-5

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.