title: Self-reported psychosocial wellbeing of adolescent childhood cancer survivors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe self-reported psychosocial wellbeing of adolescent childhood cancer survivors (CCS) compared with a control group of their peers.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this case-control study, 170 CCS aged 12-18 years completed an internet survey. The survey was a modified version of the Youth'07 Health and Wellbeing Survey of Secondary School Students in New Zealand. The control group (historical comparison) were the 9107 Youth'07 survey participants. Psychosocial wellbeing was assessed by measures of a) wellbeing (WHO-5), b) anxiety (MASC-10), c) depression (RADS2-SF) and d) emotional and behavioural difficulties (SDQ).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority of CCS scored within the normal range across all four measures: wellbeing (89%), anxiety (93%), depression (94%) and emotional and behavioural difficulties (82%), leaving a small but important minority of CCS reporting significant clinical issues. Compared to their peers, adolescent CCS were no more likely to have an abnormal score for any of the psychosocial measures, and less likely to report abnormal psychosocial wellbeing (OR = 0.44, p = 0.0003) and prosocial behaviour problems (OR = 0.53, p = 0.009). Survivors of central nervous system tumours, older age, older age at diagnosis, and lower socioeconomic status were associated with some psychosocial difficulty.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Following a diagnosis of childhood cancer, intensive therapy, and the subsequent risk of adverse health outcomes, one might expect CCS to be doing less well than their peers in terms of psychosocial wellbeing. The findings of this study, however, show that CCS are doing as well, and in some respects better, than their peers.
authors.affiliation: Starship Blood and Cancer Centre, Starship Children's Health, Private Bag 92024, Auckland 1142, New Zealand. Electronic address: KYallop@adhb.govt.nz.
authors.forename: Kathy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yallop
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: McDowell
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Koziol-McLain
authors.forename: Peter W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Reed
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D009520:New Zealand; D011584:Psychology; D011788:Quality of Life; D057566:Self Report; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Adolescent; Child; Comparative study; Neoplasms; New Zealand; Quality of life; Questionnaires; Survivors