title: Monitoring and Alleviation of Symptom Occurrence and Severity Among Thai Children and Adolescents During Cancer Treatments.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Symptom monitoring and alleviation are important during pediatric cancer treatments.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine the use of the Therapy-Related Symptom Checklist for Children (TRSC-C; Thai version) for reported occurrence, severity, and management of treatment-related symptoms within a cohort of Thai pediatric oncology patients/parents
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study; convenience sample: 100 parents of 71 male children/29 females, 63% with leukemia, 37%, other diagnoses; age-groups: <5 years, n = 33; 5 to 11 years, n = 44; 12 to 17 years, n = 25. Parents reported children's symptom occurrence/severity on the TRSC-C; and complementary care methods on the Symptom Alleviation: Self-Care Methods and their symptom alleviation methods. All tools had good psychometric properties.
  
  
  RESULTS
  18 symptoms on the 30-item TRSC-C occurred in 42% to 95% of children. Mean severity of symptoms was between 1.0 ("a bit") and 2.0 ("quite a bit"); 5-month to 11-year-old children had higher (worse) TRSC-C total scores. Complementary care was used and reported.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Monitoring of multiple symptoms with the TRSC-C and parental symptom alleviation helped children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thai parents/patients need and accept assistance in monitoring/managing side effects of pediatric cancer therapy.
authors.affiliation: University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA pwilliam@kumc.edu.
authors.forename: Phoebe D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA.
authors.forename: Ubolrat
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Piamjariyakul
authors.affiliation: University of Chicago, Comer Children's Hospital, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shanberg
authors.affiliation: James A. Haley Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Tampa, FL, USA George Mason University, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Arthur R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D009736:Nursing Process; D009859:Oncology Nursing; D010148:Intractable Pain / Q000451:nursing*; D010371:Pediatric Nursing; D011594:Psychometrics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013785:Thailand
keywords: Therapy-Related Symptom Checklist for Children; TRSC-C; parental care; complementary care; culture; pediatric cancer treatments; symptom monitoring and alleviation