title: Impact of psychological and cancer-related factors on HRQoL for Korean childhood cancer survivors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purposes of this study were (1) to compare health-related quality of life (HRQoL) between Korean childhood cancer survivors and healthy controls and (2) to examine the impact of demographic, diagnosis/treatment, and psychological variables on physical and psychosocial health in survivors.
  
  
  METHODS
  The HRQoL (PedsQL), Self-Concept Inventory, and Child Behavior Checklist were administered to childhood cancer survivors, age/gender-matched healthy counterparts, and their parents. Independent-samples t tests and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with healthy controls, childhood cancer survivors reported significantly lower scores across physical and psychosocial HRQoL. For survivors, demographic, diagnosis/treatment, current health status, and psychological variables explained more than 50 % of the variance in both subscales of HRQoL. Especially, self-concept, a psychological variable, explained a significant portion of the variance in physical and psychosocial HRQoL after controlling for cancer-related factors. Several cancer-related factors including time since treatment completion, having a history of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, multiple treatment modalities, and suffering from severe late effects also associated with specific dimension of HRQoL.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Childhood cancer survivors do experience lower level of QoL and psychological factors, especially self-concept, should be considered when supporting the well-being of childhood cancer survivors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Yonsei University, Seoul, 120-749, Korea.
authors.forename: Myung Ah
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Rhee
authors.forename: Kyong Mee
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hana K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Jung Woo
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Hyo Sun
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sun Hee
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Yoon Jung
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Chuhl Joo
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lyu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D057189:Checklist; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*