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Quality of Life among Childhood Leukemia Patients

Children's Mercy Hospital and Clinics, Kansas City, MO juhicks{at}cmh.edu.

Joy Bartholomew, MSN, RN, CS, FNP, CPON

Children's Mercy Hospital and Clinics, Kansas City, MO

Peggy Ward-Smith, PhD, RN

University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO.

CJ Hutto, BS, RN

Children's Mercy Hospital and Clinics, Kansas City, MO

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to allow childhood leukemia patients to describe their quality of life (QoL) in their own words. These personal accounts provide an opportunity for health care personnel to understand the impact that leukemia has on these children. A total of 13 children in three focus group interviews participated. They ranged in age from 5 to 9 years and were either off therapy or had completed at least 6 months of treatment. Four semistructured interview questions were used to guide the interviews. Each question related to a domain identified in previous research as having an effect on QoL. Thus, the areas explored in this study were (a) physical well-being and symptoms, (b) psychological well-being, (c) social well-being, and (d) spiritual well-being. Five themes were identified: (a) fatigue, (b) the effect on activities, (c) medication and treatment effects, (d) relationship changes, and (e) hair loss.

Key Words: quality of life • child • leukemia

Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, Vol. 20, No. 4, 192-200 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/1043454203253969


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