Evaluation of the effect of supportive care requirements of parents and fears of cancer recurrence on quality of life after treatment in pediatric oncology

The presence of a serious disease affecting the child's daily life, such as cancer, is also a source of emotional distress for parents. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the effect of supportive care needs of parents and fears of cancer recurrence on quality of life. The research was planned descriptively. 124 volunteer parents who were diagnosed with cancer between 2017 and 2021 and whose active treatment completed at the University of Health Sciences, Tepecik Education and Research Hospital, Pediatric Oncology, Nursling and Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit participated in the study. Written permission was obtained from the hospital ethics committee (Decision No: 2021/03-11 Date: 24/03/2021) for the study. September- November 2021, the data were collected using the "Introductory Information Form", "Quality of Life Scale for Caregivers of Patients with Cancer", "Inventory of Fear of Cancer Recurrence" and "Supportive Care Requirements Scale for Spouses and Caregivers of Patients Diagnosed with Cancer". 92.7% of the parents participating in the study were married. Most of the children (58.1%) had one sibling and 51.6% were the first child of the family.77.4% of the families stated that they have a medium income. ALL (29.0%) and Hodgkin's lymphoma (16.9%) predominated. The Cronbach Alpha values for the internal consistency of the scales were 0.932 for the "Supportive Care Requirements Scale for Spouses and Caregivers of Patients Diagnosed with Cancer" scale; It was found to be 0.836 for the "Quality of Life Scale for Caregivers of Patients with Cancer" scale and 0.855 for the "Inventory of Fear of Cancer Recurrence". According to the results of the correlation analysis, a statistically significant and positive relationship was found between the quality of life of individuals caring for cancer patients and their supportive care needs (r=0.178; p<0.05) and fear of cancer recurrence (r=0.633; p<0.01). According to the results of the research, parents with a higher quality of life need more care and experience more fear of cancer recurrence. Keywords: Pediatric oncology, fear, parents, quality of life