Differences in mothers’ and fathers’ health-related quality of life after pediatric SCT: a longitudinal study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine longitudinally health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and related factors in mothers and fathers of children who undergo SCT, before, and 1 and 2 years after SCT. A total of 84 parents (49 mothers/35 fathers) of patients diagnosed mainly with leukemia completed a HRQOL measure before SCT, 46 at 1 year (26 mothers/20 fathers) and 50 parents (31 mothers/19 fathers) at 2 years post SCT. Physical and psychosocial HRQOL summary scores are reported. Parents' age and gender, child's diagnosis, radiation history, age, behavior and physical health were examined. Linear mixed models for repeated measures with a covariate structure were used for analysis. Physical HRQOL did not differ between mothers and fathers or over time. Maternal and paternal psychosocial HRQOL scores improved by 2 years post SCT. Child's behavior problems and poor health, and maternal age (younger) predicted poor maternal psychosocial HRQOL 2 years post SCT. Child's behavior problems, diagnosis and treatment severity predicted poor paternal psychosocial HRQOL. These findings identify similar (child's poor behavior) and differential risk factors (parental young age, disease and treatment severity, and child's poor health status) for poor HRQOL for mothers and fathers. These findings can guide comprehensive family-care interventions before, during and after pediatric SCT.

Parent Outlook: How Parents View the Road Ahead as They Embark on Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Their Child

“…Our overall sample size is robust and likely sufficient to permit detection of a significant difference if it existed. That being said, differences between mothers and fathers with regard to psychological distress and coping before HSCT have been described, and this issue warrants further study [16,49]. Second, the study sample was drawn in part from an intervention study, although the findings presented are from data collected occurred before randomization.…”

NCI, NHLBI/PBMTC First International Conference on Late Effects after Pediatric Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation: Health-Related Quality of Life, Functional, and Neurocognitive Outcomes

“…Recent longitudinal studies have identified an association of additional baseline risk factors with the trajectory of HRQL following HCT, including child age (older, worse HRQL),[14, 19, 20] child gender (female, worse HRQL), [20] rater (mothers report lower HRQL than fathers; children report better HRQL than parents),[18, 21] concordance by primary language or by gender of the raters (concordant pairs, higher HRQL),[22] parental emotional distress, (greater distress, worse HRQL),[18, 23] and child race, (African American, better HRQL). [20] Larger studies are needed to confirm these findings in medically and demographically diverse samples.…”

Gender‐specific differences in parental health‐related quality of life in childhood cancer

“…HRQoL has been previously studied in caregivers of children with different diseases, including pediatric oncology populations . In most studies, caregivers reported significant impairment in both mental and physical HRQoL domains.…”

“…Identified risk factors were (among others) female parent gender, preexistent parental illness, lack of social or emotional support, less effective coping strategies, and child characteristics such as worse functional status, higher care dependency, and more symptoms or increased disease activity . In childhood oncology, additionally described risk factors are treatment intensity, shorter time since diagnosis, high parental distress and family burden, and lower socioeconomic status …”