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Parental reports of behavioural outcome among paediatric leukaemia survivors in Malaysia: a single institution experience
Author(s) -
Hamidah Alias,
Sham Marina Mohd,
Tamil Azmi M.,
Loh CKhai,
Zarina Latiff A.,
Jamal Rahman,
Tuti Iryani Mohd Daud,
Ratnam Vijayalakshmi C.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
tropical medicine and international health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.056
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1365-3156
pISSN - 1360-2276
DOI - 10.1111/tmi.12358
Subject(s) - medicine , outcome (game theory) , pediatrics , institution , family medicine , psychology , political science , mathematics , mathematical economics , law
Objectives To determine the behavioural impact of chemotherapy in survivors of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) treated with chemotherapy only and to identify treatment‐related or sociodemography‐related factors that might be associated with behavioural outcome. Methods We examined 57 survivors of childhood ALL, who were off treatment for at least 2 years and were in remission, aged 4–18 years, and 221 unrelated healthy controls. The Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) parent report was used either in English or in Bahasa Malaysia (the national language of Malaysia) to assess the behavioural outcome. Results Childhood ALL survivors had significantly higher scores on externalising behaviour on the CBCL parent report than did controls. Higher problem scores were found in ALL survivors with single parents on ‘total problems’ ( P = 0.03) and subscales ‘withdrawn’ ( P = 0.03), ‘social problems’ ( P < 0.01) and ‘delinquent behaviour’ ( P = 0.03) than in survivors with married parents. Significant associations were seen between a lower education level of the father and the variables representing internalising (withdrawn, anxious/depressed) and externalising (aggressive behaviour). We observed trends on higher scores in all scales in ALL survivors with single parents than in controls with single parents or with fathers with low education level, especially primary education only. Conclusions Malaysian childhood ALL survivors had a significantly increased risk for externalising behavioural problems, and there was a trend towards increased risk of problems in many other behavioural scales. Understanding the sociocultural dimension of patients’ health is important to be able to design the most appropriate remedy for problem behaviours detected in this multi‐ethnic population.