Cancer in childhood: children's and parents' aspects for quality of life.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the present study is to (a) describe the level of agreement between reports of health-related quality of life (HRQL) obtained from parents and young patients both on- and off-treatment and (b) explore the factors that may affect the level of agreement in the quality of life (QoL) between young patients and parental proxies. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study group consisted of 149 young patients (77 children and 72 adolescents) with cancer followed up by an oncology in-patient clinic of a Greek children's hospital with one of their parents (n=298). After parental consent was obtained, data were collected using the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) and a sociodemographic data form. RESULTS: The data collection showed that the best agreement was for the physical (ICC=0.82) and the school domains (ICC=0.68), whereas the worst was for the emotional (ICC=0.48) and the social domains (ICC=0.52). In the off-treatment group, the mother's age was a significant predictor of the child-proxy difference on the physical sub-scale (F=9.804, P=0.003). There was a negative relationship between the mother's age and patient proxy difference on the physical sub-scale. In the on-treatment group, the educational level of the father was found to be a significant predictor for the physical (F=4.30, P=0.041), school (F=5.51, P=0.022) and total sub-scales (F=10.41, P=0.002). Parents with basic education tended to have worse agreement with their children's reports on the physical and school sub-scales, while parents with higher education had worse agreement with their children's reports on the total sub-scale. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the children and adolescents with cancer reported better QoL than their parents. The predictors found to be significant need to be examined extensively by further studies.     

Cancer caregivers' quality of life: effects of gender, relationship, and appraisal

The objective of this study was to examine caregivers' gender and relationship to the cancer survivor as plausible predictors of their appraisals of providing care, and to further examine the association of the caregivers' appraisal with their own quality of life. Of the 739 caregivers who participated in the American Cancer Society's Quality of Life Survey for Caregivers, 627 were either the spouse or the offspring of a cancer survivor. Of those, 448 who provided complete information on study variables were included in this study. Multivariate analyses revealed that male caregivers were more likely to appraise the caregiving experience as boosting their self-esteem (positive) than female caregivers, whereas adult daughters appraised the experience as stressful (negative), and sons appraised the experience as the least stressful. More importantly, caregivers' esteem and caregiving stress were strong predictors of the caregivers' quality of life. These effects were significant after controlling for potentially confounding variables. The findings suggest that cancer caregivers may benefit from programs designed to assist them in viewing their involvement in cancer care as meaningful and as a personal growth experience, as well as helping them to seek support to minimize their caregiving stress.     

Sexuality and quality of life

The purpose of this research was to explore the relationships between sexual activity and intimacy and quality of life (QOL) of older adults. The authors' research question was "To what extent do age, gender, marital status, health status, education, satisfaction with personal relationships, sexual activity, and satisfaction with intimacy explain older adults' ratings of QOL?" A secondary analysis was conducted using results from a cross-sectional survey. Data were available from a convenience sample of 426 individuals living in British Columbia, Canada, who volunteered to complete the questionnaire. Instruments included the WHOQOL-100, WHOQOL-OLD, and a demographic data sheet. It was found that the strongest contributors to the variance of overall QOL were satisfaction with personal relationships, followed by health status andsexual activity. Age, gender, marital status, and education were not significant. The implications for gerontological nurses include the need to support personal relationships for older adults, to encourage health promotion, and to ensure sexuality is discussed with older adults.     

Antihypertensive therapy and quality of life

Treatment of mild hypertension is becoming increasingly accepted, and many more patients are receiving antihypertensive drugs. A number of new agents offer potential benefits over traditional therapy. These benefits are due to differences in side effect profiles, which have the potential for improved compliance. Quality of life is an important consideration in the selection of antihypertensive therapy.