Disagreement between mothers' and fathers' rating of health-related quality of life in children with cancer

• DOI: 10.1007/s11136-023-03341-0
• Publication Date: 2023-01-12T18:02:44Z
• Authors: Andreas Meryk; Gabriele Kropshofer; Benjamin Hetzer; David Riedl; Jens Lehmann; Gerhard Rumpold; Alexandra Haid; Verena Schneeberg...; Christina Salvador; Evelyn Rabensteiner; Maria-Sophie Roth...; Bernhard Holzner; Roman Crazzolara
• Keywords: Childhood Cancer

Serial assessment of health condition based on self-report made by children and their proxies has consistently shown a lack congruence. The study explored the discrepancies between mother's, father's, children's reports health-related quality life (HRQOL) during first two months pediatric cancer treatment.In this cohort study, parents completed generic cancer-specific Pediatric Quality-of-Life Inventory (PedsQL) questionnaires at initial diagnosis in subsequent months. Evaluation included intraclass correlations mother-child father-child dyads different domain levels.Thirty-six with May 2020 November 2021 were study. At diagnosis, showed better agreement more domains PedsQL Generic Core Scale than dyads; moderate persisted for both time points physical domain. disease-specific Cancer Module revealed active therapy. In particular, was pronounced such as worry (0.77 [95% CI 0.52-0.89, P < 0.001]), whereas fathers tended to overestimate child's symptom burden most remaining Module.This shows that parent proxy can provide valid information HRQOL, but tend overestimate, particularly non-observable domains. Proxy derived from mothers closely agreed HRQOL might be weighted, if there is uncertainty parents.