Health Related Quality Of Life (HRQOL) Among Patients With Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia In Saudi Arabia: Cross- Sectional Study.

Abstract

BackgroundIncidences of Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the highest type among hematological malignancy affecting children. Cancer patients experience bothersome symptoms during chemotherapy courses, either from cancer itself or side effects from chemotherapy, which would be visible or invisible. In health care, where therapies aim to prolong survival, maintaining or improving HRQOL is becoming increasingly important.Methods This was a cross-sectional study. A total of 100 patients aged 2-12 years from King Saud University Medical City (KSUMC) and King Fahad Medical City (KFMC) are included to complete the parent proxy report of Pediatric Quality Of Life Inventory TM (PedsQLTM) 3.0 Cancer Module (Arabic version) which is a module to measure HRQOL in pediatrics.ResultsA total number of 100 patients participated in this study, their ages ranging from 2-12 years with a mean of 6. Male represented 59% of the sample and the other 41% were female. The overall HRQOL is divided into three levels, High (16%), intermediate (38%), poor (46%) represent the majority of the patients. The lowest scores of sub-scales that have affected HRQOL shown as mean were procedural anxiety (41.47), treatment anxiety (58.33) and worry (62.75) were the maximum mean value is 100. Procedural anxiety is affected by age, patients aged 6 or less have more procedural anxiety than older age. Patients who receive treatment for a year or less show an increase in worry. Male show more cognitive problems than females.Conclusions Results show that the majority of patients have poor HRQOL with a significant association between male gender and cognitive problems, younger age and procedural anxiety, short duration of treatment and worry.