| Learning Objective #1: Understand the health problems and psychosocial problems of children with cancer on and off treatment | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Understand the new issue of nursing intervention for children with cancer on and off treatment |
The purpose of this study was to describe health problems and psychosocial adaptation in children with cancer and to determine the relationship between these two variables.
The data were collected from 61 parents of 61 children with cancer, aged 4-11 years. Interviews with structured questionnaires were done with the parents in the pediatric clinic or inpatient ward of a university hospital located in Seoul, Korea. The instruments for this study were the Korea Child Behavior Check List (KCBCL) developed by Achenbach (1991) and standardized for Korean children by Oh et al. (1997). The health problems were measured by a physical symptom checklist developed by the researchers. Most of the children (86.9%) complained of health problems. The major health problems were coughing, sleeping disturbances, fatigue and weakness. For the children who were in remission and off treatment, mouth sores and anorexia were more frequent complaints than for children on treatment. These problems were unrelated to cancer therapy. The total behavior problem score for children in the cancer group was higher than the score for those in the norm group. The scores on the scales for withdrawal, somatic complaints, social immaturity, and internalizing were higher in the children with cancer compared to normative findings. Scores on social and school competence in the cancer group were lower than the norms for healthy children. The relationship between health problems and psychosocial adaptation was not significant. However in the subscales of withdrawal, anxiety/depression and internalizing problems, social involvement were significantly correlated. Especially the relationship was significant in the off therapy group. Findings from this study support the importance of different nursing interventions for managing health problems and facilitate adjustment in children on treatment and in those off treatment.
Back to Children and Chronic Illness
Back to 37th Biennial Convention - Scientific Session
Sigma Theta Tau International