Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health and Modeling of Noncommunicable Diseases Research Center, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran.
Chronic Disease (Home Care) Research Center, Hamadan University of Medial Sciences, Hamadan, Iran.
J Prev Med Hyg. 2022 Apr 26;63(1):E142-E151. doi: 10.15167/2421-4248/jpmh2022.63.1.2279. eCollection 2022 Mar.
Poor health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of parents of children with cancer as their main caregivers can adversely affect child's HRQOL. Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) is a widely used instrument to measure HRQOL. However, there are no clearly defined cut-off points for screening for parents with poor HRQOL. This study aimed to find appropriate cut-off points for the SF-36 questionnaire in a sample of parents of children with cancer using latent profile analysis to add another possibility to use it.
In this cross-sectional study, a number of 108 couples (108 mothers and 108 fathers), who had children with cancer, were selected by simple random sampling method from the patients' files. The study was conducted at two settings, pediatric hematology/oncology wards of BESAT hospital (a hospital related to Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Iran) in 2017. Latent Profile analysis (LPA) method was used to determine appropriate cut-off points for the SF-36 questionnaire. Data was analyzed by Mplus and R3.3.0 software.
Based on the results, scores ≤ 44, 45-63 and ≥ 64 for mental health, and scores ≤ 43, 44-59 and ≥ 60 for physical health classes indicate weak, medium, and good, respectively. These cut-off points showed acceptable accuracy in classification of individuals. For the total quality of life, correct classification rates were 88%, 65% and 53% for each class respectively. For mental health (physical health), they were 79(63), 50(62) and 52(63) for each class respectively.
The cut-off points for the classes identified here can be useful in screening parents of children with cancer in clinical setting to provide clinical interventions to protect vulnerable parents from negative outcomes.
作为癌症患儿主要照顾者的父母的健康相关生活质量（HRQOL）较差，可能会对孩子的 HRQOL 产生不利影响。36 项简短健康调查（SF-36）是一种广泛用于测量 HRQOL 的工具。然而，目前还没有明确界定用于筛查 HRQOL 较差的父母的截止值。本研究旨在通过潜在剖面分析为癌症患儿父母的 SF-36 问卷找到合适的截止值，为其应用提供另一种可能。
在这项横断面研究中，采用简单随机抽样方法，从患者档案中选择了 108 对（108 位母亲和 108 位父亲）癌症患儿的父母。研究于 2017 年在 BESAT 医院（与伊朗哈马丹医科大学有关的一家医院）的儿科血液学/肿瘤病房进行。采用潜在剖面分析（LPA）方法确定 SF-36 问卷的适当截止值。数据采用 Mplus 和 R3.3.0 软件进行分析。
根据结果，心理健康的得分≤44、45-63 和≥64，以及身体健康的得分≤43、44-59 和≥60，分别表示较弱、中等和较好。这些截止值在个体分类方面显示出可接受的准确性。对于总体生活质量，每个类别的正确分类率分别为 88%、65%和 53%。对于心理健康（身体健康），每个类别的正确分类率分别为 79（63）、50（62）和 52（63）。
这里确定的类别截止值可用于在临床环境中筛选癌症患儿的父母，以提供临床干预措施，保护弱势父母免受负面后果的影响。
