Factors Associated with Maternal Perception of Health-related Quality of Life of Vietnamese Preschoolers with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Abstract

Objectives: To examine the maternal perception of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of Vietnamese preschoolers with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and its related factors, including child gender, sleep disturbance, and parenting stress. Method: This cross-sectional descriptive correlational study recruited a sample of 76 mothers of 2 to 5-year-old children diagnosed with ALL in maintenance treatment phase. Data were collected from July to September 2015 at the Pediatric Ward of the Cancer Hospital, the Pediatric Outpatient Department of the Blood Transfusion and Hematology Hospital, and the Hemato-Oncology Department of the Children Hospital No.2, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Research instruments were 1) a demographic questionnaire, 2) the PedsQLTM cancer module standard version (version 3.0): Parent report for toddlers (ages 2 - 4), 3) the children’s sleep habits questionnaire, and 4) the parental stress scale for mothers. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of questionnaires 2 - 4 were 0.70, 0.74 and 0.81, respectively. Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and point biserial were used to analyze the data. Results: A mean total HRQoL score of 80.11 (SD = 6.24) indicated a high HRQoL. We found the highest mean score of HRQoL pain and hurt subscale (95.07  8.44) (which meant high HRQoL), and poorest in communication subscale (45.29  20.93). There was significantly negative correlation between sleep disturbance and maternal perception of child’s HRQoL (r = -0.36, P < 0.01). Conclusion: Vietnamese preschoolers with ALL had high HRQoL as perceived by their mothers. It was negatively correlated with sleep disturbance.Keywords: health-related quality of life, sleep disturbance, parenting stress, preschoolers, Vietnam, lymphoblastic leukemia