Author Affiliations: School of Nursing (Drs Lam, Leung, K.Y.Y. Chan, and Wong and Ms Ho), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China; Caritas Medical Centre (Dr S.C.W. Chan), Hong Kong, People's Republic of China; and Nursing Department (Mss Li and Wang) and Department of Pediatric Hemato-oncology (Ms Yin), Shenzhen Children's Hospital; and Pediatric Department (Mss Yi and Zhou), University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, Guangdong, China.
Cancer Nurs. 2022;45(5):E775-E781. doi: 10.1097/NCC.0000000000001032. Epub 2021 Nov 1.
Because of their cancer and treatment adverse effects, most pediatric oncology patients will experience 1 or more symptoms at one time that can seriously affect their quality of life. Because these children are attached to parents, their symptom burden directly influences the parental stress level and parental interpretations of their children's quality of life.
The aim of this study was to examine the association between child-reported symptom burden and the pediatric quality of life reported by children with cancer and their parents, and whether parental perceived stress mediates these relationships.
In a cross-sectional design, convenience sampling was used to recruit 80 parent-child dyads. Advanced statistical methods were adopted to analyze the mediating effects of parental stress between children's symptom burden and their quality of life.
The results revealed that parental stress was the mediator in the relationship between child-reported symptom burden and children's quality of life reported by parents. The results also showed that parental stress was not a mediator in the relationship between child-reported symptom burden and their quality of life. This underscored the differences in interpretations of quality of life reported by children and their parents.
Children's symptom burden is an important factor in predicting parental stress level and the quality of life reported by the children. Children's voice should be incorporated whenever possible.
The knowledge gained from this study will facilitate intervention development to enhance parents' abilities in stress management and symptom management for their children with the support of the nursing profession.
由于癌症及其治疗的不良反应，大多数儿科肿瘤患者会同时出现 1 种或多种严重影响其生活质量的症状。由于这些孩子依赖父母，他们的症状负担直接影响父母的压力水平和父母对孩子生活质量的认知。
本研究旨在探讨儿童报告的症状负担与癌症儿童及其父母报告的儿科生活质量之间的关系，以及父母感知的压力是否在这些关系中起中介作用。
采用横断面设计，采用便利抽样法招募了 80 对亲子组。采用先进的统计方法分析了父母压力在儿童报告的症状负担与父母报告的儿童生活质量之间的中介作用。
结果表明，父母压力是儿童报告的症状负担与父母报告的儿童生活质量之间关系的中介变量。结果还表明，父母压力不是儿童报告的症状负担与儿童生活质量之间关系的中介变量。这凸显了儿童和他们的父母对生活质量的认知存在差异。
儿童的症状负担是预测父母压力水平和儿童报告的生活质量的一个重要因素。应尽可能纳入儿童的声音。
本研究获得的知识将有助于干预措施的发展，以增强父母在护理专业支持下对子女进行压力管理和症状管理的能力。
