Health related quality of life of children with Leukemia: Mixed approach

3^rd Euro Nursing & Medicare Summit

July 27-29, 2015 Valencia, Spain

Anu V K

Maharajgunj Nursing Campus, Nepal

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

Children and adolescents when confronted with a chronic and debilitating disease as leukemia, it leaves them up the creek in lack of comprehensive care. Thereby, Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) serves as an essential measure in evaluating this impact which is essential in care of these patients. An embedded mixed method design was adopted for this study to assess the HRQOL of children with leukemia in B. P. Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital (BPKMCH), Bharatpur. A descriptive cross-sectional design was used for quantitative and in qualitative, case study was done. The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) generic core scale was used to collect the quantitative data from 43 children and their parent via interview schedule. Among the respondents of quantitative study, concurrently 3 were purposively chosen for case study to elicit narrative accounts focusing on the subscales of HRQOL. Majority of the respondents were male (72.1%) and aged 13- 18 years (44.2%). Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (81.4%) was the most common type of leukemia. In generic scale, both child and their parents reported that the emotional functioning was the most affected subscale. There was significant correlation between child and parent scores. Though none of the variables were significantly associated with subscales of generic scale, in triangulation, qualitative findings explored the quantitative findings. Emotional aspects is most affected, so psychological health services are required to serve these physically challenged pediatric population.

Biography :

Anu V K is currently working as a lecture in Shree Medical and Technical College, Chitwan, Nepal since 2014. She is the first person in dalit community (disadvantage group) to complete Master in Nursing in Child Health Nursing (2012-2014) from country’s renowned nursing college, Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. She has published an article entitled “Quality of life of patients undergoing hemodialysis in BPKIHS” in Journal of Manmohan Institute of Health Sciences in 2013. As a researcher, she is also involved in Nepal Academy for Reproductive Health organization. She has participated in different conferences and trainings.

Email: anuvk0@gmail.com