Publication details
Effects of childhood malignancy treatment on quality of life: Preliminary results of the QOLOP project
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2008 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Social Processes and Personality |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Oncology and hematology |
| Keywords | cancer; quality of life; childhood |
| Description | The most common health problems of patients who underwent childhood malignancy treatment are psychosocial and cognitive disorders. The project QOLOP (Quality of Life Longitudinal Study of Pediatric Oncology Patients) is a prospective longitudinal study whose purpose is to identify areas of reduced quality of life in children with cancer, including both objective indicators (mobility, function of sense organs, social involvement), and subjective well-being (emotional experience, life satisfaction). This study analyzes data from 49 childhood cancer survivors aged 8 to 14 years that were compared with data obtained from control group, pupils of elementary schools in Brno, Czech Republic. The study focused on the following four life domains: conventional involvement, parent-child interactions, depressiveness and self-perceived quality of life. Compared to children from control group, childhood cancer survivors showed lower involvement in social activities, lower degree of depressiveness and higher satisfaction with their health, belief, appearance and ability to attend school. No differences between child-parent interactions were found between the groups. Certain results were unexpected (such as lower depressiveness in cancer survivors) and are discussed in detail. |