Quality of Life among the Parents of Children with Hematological Malignancies: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Background: Haematological malignancies are the most common cancer among the children in the age groupof 0-14 years. Leukemia is the most prevalent cancer among these children. The diagnosis of haematologicalmalignancy in a child is a frightening situation for the parents as well as the family, as they are the primarycaregivers of the children. The aim of the present study was to assess quality of life (QoL) among parents ofchildren with haematological malignancies.Methods: The cross-sectional pilot study included 30 parents of children between 0-14 years of age takingtreatment at the two tertiary cancer care centres of Kerala, India. The data regarding QoL was obtainedthrough Parents a validated Malayalam version of parent’s quality of life inventory (P-QLI). Descriptivestatistics was used to identify quality of life of the parents.Results: An equal distribution of fathers and mothers were maintained in the study ( 15 mothers and 15fathers). The average age of the parents was 26± 2 years (for mothers) and 34± 3 years (for the fathers).Majority (73.3%) of children had Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL), and their mean age was 6±4 years.The statistical analysis showed that 33.3% of the parents had a poor quality of life after the diagnosis ofhaematological malignancy for their children. In addition, the mean QoL scores among the parents of childrenwith haematological malignancies were less thatn50% of the total score of the P-QLI .The haematologicalmalignancies among the children had a negative impact on physiological, psychological, social, vocational,economic, and spiritual dimensions of parent’s quality of life.Conclusions: This study showed that QoL measured by QLI-PCL in parents of children with haematologicalmalignancies were poor, and the present study put forward the need strengthening parent support servicesamong the parents of children with cancer.