Longitudinal parental preferences for late effects communication during cancer treatment.

ABSTRACT

Few studies have investigated parent preferences for late effects communication during pediatric cancer treatment. We used questionnaire data to assess whether parental preferences for late effects information change over the year after diagnosis. Most parents found this information to be very/extremely important at baseline, assessed soon after diagnosis, (94%, 153/162), 4 months (91%, 147/162), and 12 months (96%, 156/163). Similarly, most parents wanted as much detail as possible about late effects at baseline (85%, 141/165), 4 months (87%, 144/165), and 12 months (83%, 137/165). Parents of children with favorable prognoses preferred more details at baseline (OR 2.94, 1.18-7.31, P = 0.02) than parents whose children had less favorable prognoses.