Correlates of Quality of Life in Pediatric Cancer Survivors.

BACKGROUND: Pediatric survivors of childhood cancer are at increased risk of poor quality of life and social-emotional outcomes following treatment. Aim of the research was to examine the possible predictors of quality of life, that is, to examine the impact and relative contribution of post-traumatic stress symptoms, post-traumatic growth, the effects of treatment and social functioning on quality of life. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Participants were 83 pediatric cancer survivors at age 16 to 29 who were off-therapy for more than one year. They filled out the Impact of Event Scale-Revised Questionnaire (IES-R), Quality of life scale (QOLS) and Social Adjustment Scale (SAS-SR). Demographic data including child health status information were also collected. RESULTS: Findings indicate a significant association between quality of life and social adjustment, posttraumatic growth, health consequences and posttraumatic stress disorder. Regression analysis showed that posttraumatic growth, social functioning and treatment consequences are significant predictors of quality of life in pediatric cancer survivors. CONCLUSION: The findings highlight the importance of key factors associated with quality of life in pediatric cancer survivors. Interventions aimed at strengthening social support and highlighting positive changes following trauma of cancer treatment could improve quality of life of pediatric cancer survivors.

Quality of life in children suffering from juvenile idiopathic arthritis-associated uveitis.

Uveitis (JIA-U), the most common extra-articular manifestation in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), may cause severe impairment of vision in children and affect their quality of life (QoL). Considering the lack of uveitis-related QoL assessment questionnaire, and multidimensional nature of the Juvenile Arthritis Multidimensional Assessment Report (JAMAR), commonly used for monitoring and assessing the health status of children with JIA, we performed a cross-sectional study to investigate the potential of the JAMAR in estimation of QoL in children suffering from JIA-U. The study included 42 children with JIA, 21 of whom had JIA-U. Both children and their parents completed the JAMAR. We compared two groups of children (JIA-U and JIA without uveitis) and their parents against five extracted questionnaires items (QoL, functional ability, pain level, disease activity estimation, and current emotional state of the child) using the independent-samples t test to verify the differences and the Pearson correlation coefficient to measure the strength of a linear association between variables. No significant statistical difference in any of the examined variables was found between the two groups of children. In the groups of parents, current emotional state of children with JIA-U was assessed to be significantly worse (t = 2.05, p < 0.05) and the overall level of functioning significantly lower (t = 2.03, p < 0.05) than children without uveitis. Our results suggest the need for adding the uveitis-specific questionnaires items to JAMAR to improve its sensitivity and specificity in the assessment of QoL in children suffering from JIA-U, as well as designing a second assessment tool such as uveitis-specific questionnaires.