Comparison of the anxiety levels in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and their well siblings using the child drawing: Hospital manual”

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES@#The study aims to determine and compare the anxiety of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and their well siblings based on Child drawing Hospital manual and to identify factors associated with the level of anxiety.@*METHODS@#A prospective cross-sectional study was done in tertiary pediatric hospitals which included children aged five to eleven years old diagnosed with ALL and their well siblings.@*RESULTS@#A total of forty dyads of participants were studied. ALL patients presented higher anxiety scores than their siblings, but this was not statistically significant. There is a weak direct correlation between overall anxiety scores of ALL patients and their siblings (p = 0.017). There is insufficient evidence for an association between select clinical factors with anxiety scores. The linear regression model explained 49.77% in the variation of the anxiety scores but was not statistically significant.@*CONCLUSIONS@#There is a direct correlation between overall anxiety scores of ALL patients and their siblings. There is also a positive association with larger family size and child‘s response to sibling‘s illness. Larger families are likelier to have a healthier environment. The study also showed low to average anxiety levels among participants which may be related to quality of care and support given by the institution and inherent resiliency of the family.@*RECOMMENDATIONS@#Future research should aim to develop programs in partnership with families and other social support groups and explore the effectiveness of these interventions. Further studies should examine other possible cultural and psychodynamic factors prevalent in Filipino Family.