Health-related quality of life and well-being in parents of infants and toddlers with cancer.

Background: The unique psychosocial needs of parents and caregivers of young children with cancer are poorly understood. The aims of the present study were to examine health-related quality of life (hrqol), stress, and psychological distress in parents of young children (0-4 years) diagnosed with cancer; and the associations between parent psychosocial functioning and child treatment characteristics. Methods: Parents (n = 35) with a child (n = 19 male, 54.3%) 0-48 months of age (median: 31.06 months) on active cancer therapy were recruited. Parents completed questionnaires related to demographics, parent hrqol, parenting stress, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and parent psychological distress. Results: Parents reported clinically elevated parenting stress (5.9%), posttraumatic stress symptoms (18.2%), and psychological distress (21.9%). Compared with population norms, parents reported lower hrqol in the vitality (t = 5.37, p < 0.001), mental health (t = 4.02, p < 0.001), role limitation-emotional (t = 3.52, p < 0.001), and general health perceptions (t = 2.25, p = 0.025) domains. Social functioning (ß = 0.33, p = 0.041) predicted general health perceptions; vitality (ß = 0.30, p = 0.134) and parent mental health (ß = 0.24, p = 0.285) did not [F(3,29) = 12.64, p < 0.001, R2 = 0.57]. Conclusions: A subset of parents of young children on active cancer treatment experience clinically elevated psychosocial symptoms. Having poor social connections put parents at risk of perceiving their health more poorly in general. Supports that focus on preventing the emergence of clinically significant distress should focus on parents of young children with cancer who are most at risk of poor outcomes.

Quality of life in pediatric cancer survivors: contributions of parental distress and psychosocial family risk.

BACKGROUND: Pediatric survivors of childhood cancer are at increased risk of poor quality of life and social-emotional outcomes following treatment. The relationship between parent psychological distress and child adjustment in pediatric cancer survivors has been well established. However, limited research has examined the factors that may buffer this association. The current study examined the associations between psychosocial family risk factors, parental psychological distress, and health-related quality of life (hrql) in pediatric cancer survivors. METHODS: Fifty-two pediatric cancer survivors (34 males, 18 females, mean age = 11.92) and their parents were recruited from a long-term cancer survivor clinic. Children and their parents who consented to participate completed the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0. Parents completed a demographic information form, the Psychosocial Assessment Tool (pat 2.0) and the Brief Symptom Inventory (bsi). The Intensity of Treatment Rating (itr-3) was evaluated by the research team. RESULTS: Multiple regression analyses revealed that parental psychological distress negatively predicted parent-reported hrql, while treatment intensity, gender, and psychosocial risk negatively predicted parent and child-reported hrql. Psychosocial risk moderated the association between parent psychological distress and parent-reported child hrql (p = 0.03), whereby parents with high psychological distress but low levels of psychosocial risk reported their children to have higher hrql. CONCLUSION: Low levels of family psychosocial risk buffer the impact of parent psychological distress on child hrql in pediatric cancer survivors. The findings highlight the importance of identifying parents and families with at-risk psychological distress and psychosocial risk in order to provide targeted support interventions to mitigate the impact on hrql.