title: Surviving childhood cancer: parents' perceptions of their child's health.
abstract: The improving prognosis for children with cancer refocuses attention to long-term outcomes. The purpose of this study was to assess whether changes in mothers' and fathers' perception of caregiving demands and well-being over a 1-year time period predicted parents' perception of their child's health at 12 months and to evaluate if these variables predicted change in health perceptions over a period of 1 year. Twenty Icelandic families of children younger than 18 years with cancer participated in the study. The change in general well-being over the year significantly predicted parents' perception of their child's health at 12 months; for the mothers, the change in well-being also predicted the changes in their perception of their child's health over the 1-year period. These findings suggest the importance of incorporating long-term health-related outcomes and measures to improve well-being among family members in future research and clinical practice, when caring for children and families surviving childhood cancer.
authors.affiliation: University of Iceland, Faculty of Nursing, Reykjavik, Iceland. eks@hi.is
authors.forename: Erla Kolbrun
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Svavarsdottir
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011336:Probability; D012044:Regression Analysis; D018570:Risk Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017741:Survivors; D013997:Time Factors