Children's understanding of cancer

Abstract

Explanations of cancer need to take into account developmental changes in children's cognitive and emotional abilities to understand illness. Children below 5 years of age are usually informed by parents, and older children by medical staff. Information tends to focus on details of treatments and procedures, and less on the seriousness of the disease and length of time involved. There are indications that early and honest information is associated with better behaviour and adjustment in the child, communication within the family and compliance with treatment, although methodological inadequacies in assessment of adjustment and knowledge of cancer limit the ability to generalize these findings. Communication with children should take into account developmental changes in children's ability to understand illness information. Communicators should also provide emotional support to deal with the threatening nature of this information.

Conceptions of time in children treated for malignant cerebellar tumours

“…Perhaps more than any other patients, children with CT are confronted with knowledge of their own mortality and the potential threat to their lives [41]. Jay et al [39] showed that healthy children were more likely to talk about the concept of death of persons than children with cancer (see above).…”

What is Important to Young Children Who Have Cancer While in Hospital?

“…Children’s own accounts must be sought to enable health professionals to begin to understand the world of children and provide person‐centred, high quality care (Kortesluoma and others, 2003). As much of children’s understanding about a subject comes from first‐hand experience (Crisp and others, 1996; Eiser and Havermans, 1992; Kenrick and others, 1986), it is also important that children have direct experience of the matter on which they are being consulted. This study aimed to listen to the views of young children with cancer about hospital care.…”

Health promotion for survivors of childhood cancer: a minimal intervention

“…There is evidence that survivors are not aware of, or ignore these risks, to the extent that the use of tobacco and alcohol by young adult survivors is similar to that of the general population [4,5]. www Given the young age of many patients at diagnosis, knowledge and understanding of their disease and treatment are often very poor [6]. In a study of 11-26 years old survivors, many were found to have a poor understanding of the purpose of the follow-up clinics and saw few benefits in attending [7].…”