Cancer‐related stress in childhood cancer survivorship: Prevalence and associations with perceptions of health risks and quality of life

• Published in: Psycho-oncology (Chichester, England) Vol. 33; no. 1; pp. e6253 - n/a
• Main Authors: Himelhoch, Alexandra C., Olsavsky, Anna L., Darow, Eva L., Lipak, Keagan G., Kenney, Ansley E., Fisher, Rachel S., Prussien, Kemar V., Vannatta, Kathryn A., Compas, Bruce E., Gerhardt, Cynthia A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-01-2024
• Subjects: Adolescent; Cancer; Cancer Survivors; Caregivers; Child; Childhood; Fathers; Female; Health risks; Humans; Indirect effects; Medical diagnosis; Medical prognosis; Mothers; Neoplasms - epidemiology; oncology; Parents & parenting; Pediatrics; Perceptions; Prevalence; psychosocial functioning; Quality of Life; Relapse; Risk perception; Stress; Survivor; Survivors; survivorship; survivorship; psychosocial functioning; cancer; quality of life; oncology; pediatrics
• ISSN: 1057-9249; 1099-1611; 1099-1611
• DOI: 10.1002/pon.6253

Objective
Limited research has characterized cancer‐related stress (CRS) among families of childhood cancer survivors. We examined the prevalence of CRS among survivors and caregivers, as well as its association with health risk perceptions (i.e., prognosis, risk for diminished quality of life) and views of survivor quality of life (QoL).
Methods
At five years post‐diagnosis or relapse, survivors (n = 100; Mage = 15.84 years; 89% White), mothers (n = 127), and fathers (n = 59) reported their CRS. Perceived prognosis and risk for diminished QoL were rated on a 0%–100% visual analogue scale, while the PedsQL assessed QoL.
Results
CRS was low (M = 1.6–1.8, scale: 1–4); mothers reported greater stress than survivors, p = 0.038, d = 0.25. There was an indirect effect of survivors' perceived prognosis on their QoL through CRS, CI = 0.04 to 0.25, R2 = 0.32. Among mothers, there was an indirect effect of perceived prognosis/risk for diminished QoL on their reports of survivor QoL through CRS, CI = 0.03 to 0.23 and −0.15 to −0.03, R2 = 0.28 and 0.32, respectively. There were no indirect effects among fathers.
Conclusions
CRS may be an important, modifiable factor that could improve survivors' QoL. Research is needed to examine how CRS changes over time to assess the utility of interventions among female survivors, mothers, and those with lower prognosis estimates.