A comparison of parent and adolescent reports describing the health-related quality of life of adolescents treated for cancer

Abstract

Our objectives were to compare adolescent and parent ratings of the health-related quality of life (HRQL) of adolescents treated for cancer, to compare the HRQL of adolescents who were on treatment vs. the HRQL of those who were off treatment following their diagnosis with cancer and to assess the HRQL of adolescents who were at different points of time following their diagnosis with cancer. The HRQL of 70 adolescents (aged 10 to 18 years) consecutively attending the Women's and Children's Hospital Oncology Clinic in South Australia was assessed by means of standard questionnaires. Parents completed the Child Health Questionnaire, the Functional Status II(R) Questionnaire and the Impact-on-Family Scale. Adolescents completed the self-report version of the Child Health Questionnaire. In general, there was good agreement between parent and adolescent reports. However, parents of adolescents receiving active treatment for cancer reported that their illness was having a greater impact on the adolescents' physical functioning than was reported by the adolescents. The psycho-social functioning of adolescents in single-parent families was reported also by parents to be worse than that of adolescents in 2-parent families. The physical functioning of adolescents had only a weak relationship with parental status but a significant relationship with treatment status. Despite generally good agreement between parent and adolescent reports describing the HRQL of adolescents treated for cancer, it cannot be assumed that reports from parents are always an accurate reflection of the views of the adolescents. Studies examining the influence of independent factors on adolescents' HRQL must take into account differences in reports from these 2 informants and the possibility that key independent variables have differing relationships with the various domains which comprise adolescents' HRQL.