Quality of life of paediatric oncology patients

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the indicators of quality of life (QoL) of children and adolescents with cancer and to evaluate the QoL of participants regarding oral health. Material and Methods: The modified Autoquestionnaire Qualité de Vie Enfant Imagé (AUQEI), with scores ranging from 0 to 78 and a cut-off value of 48, was the instrument used in this study. Questions were added regarding oral health, with scores ranging from 0 to 18. The study consisted of two groups: group 1 (case) consisted of 24 children and adolescents with cancer, and group 2 (control) consisted of 30 healthy children and adolescents aged 6 to 15 years old. A chi-square test was performed using the SPSS program, version 18.0, to determine whether health conditions were related to QoL. Results: We observed that 69.25% of participants had scores representing a satisfactory QoL, with a mean score of 54.3 (51.7 for the group of children and adolescents with cancer and 56.5 for the healthy group). The results of the present study showed a value of p=0.016, suggesting that the disease condition is related to lower QoL scores. The Mann-Whitney test showed that the healthy group showed significantly better indicators in the oral health domain. Conclusion: The children and adolescents under study showed satisfactory overall QoL standards; however, when comparing the cancer group to the healthy group, we observed that cancer is associated with lower QoL indicators.