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Quality of Life in Survivors of Pediatric Cancer and Their Siblings: The Consensus Between Parent‐Proxy and Self‐Reports
Author(s) -
Schulte Fiona,
Wurz Amanda,
Reynolds Kathleen,
Strother Douglas,
Dewey Deborah
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
pediatric blood and cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.116
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1545-5017
pISSN - 1545-5009
DOI - 10.1002/pbc.25868
Subject(s) - sibling , proxy (statistics) , intraclass correlation , medicine , quality of life (healthcare) , correlation , clinical psychology , repeated measures design , analysis of variance , cancer survivor , demography , psychometrics , developmental psychology , psychology , cancer , statistics , geometry , nursing , mathematics , machine learning , sociology , computer science
Objectives To examine the discrepancy between survivor–parent and sibling–parent reports of health‐related quality of life (HRQL) and the level of agreement (i.e., correlation) between child reports (i.e., survivor and sibling) and parent‐proxy reports of HRQL. Methods Fifty‐one families participated. Pediatric cancer survivors (49% male; 6–18 years of age) and one sibling (47% male; 9–18 years of age) completed a measure of their HRQL. As well, one parent (14% male; 27–65 years of age) from each family completed a proxy report of their children's (i.e., survivor and sibling) HRQL. Consensus was determined through discrepancy and agreement scores, between parent‐proxy and children's (i.e., survivors and siblings) self‐reports of total HRQL, and physical, emotional, social, and school functioning subscales. Results Repeated‐measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant group differences for total HRQL ( F = 6.79, P ≤ 0.01). Repeated‐measure ANOVAs of subscale discrepancy scores revealed significant group differences for physical functioning scores ( F = 6.39, P < 0.01). A significant interaction was also found for social functioning when age at diagnosis was considered as a covariate ( F = 10.30, P < 0.01). Zero‐order and intraclass correlation coefficients revealed different levels of agreement between parent and child reports. Specifically, there was poorer agreement between parent‐proxy and sibling's self‐reports, particularly on social and emotional subscales. Conclusions Discrepancy and agreement are both important indices to consider when examining consensus between parent‐proxy and child self‐reports. The findings from this study have important implications for future research and suggest that the impact of cancer on siblings should be further investigated.