Abstract
The changes and general alarm of the current COVID-19 pandemic have amplified the sense of precariousness and vulnerability for family members who, in addition to the emotional trauma of the cancer diagnosis, add the distress and fear of the risks associated with infection. The primary objectives of the present study were to investigate the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the parents of pediatric cancer patients, and the level of stress, anxiety, and the child’s quality of life perceived by the parents during the COVID-19 epidemic. The parents of 45 consecutive children with solid and hematological tumors were enrolled. Four questionnaires (Impact of Event Scale-Revised – IES-R; Perceived Stress Scale – PSS; Spielberger State – Trait Anxiety Inventory – STAI-Y; Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory – PedsQL) were administered to the parents at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown. A 75% of parents exhibited remarkable levels of anxiety, with 60 subjects in state scale and 45 subjects in trait scale having scores that reached and exceeded the STAI-Y cut off. The bivariate matrix of correlation found a significant positive correlation between the IES-R and PSS scores (r = 0.55, P < 0.001). There was a positive correlation between the PSS and PedsQL (emotional needs) scale (P < 0.001) and a negative correlation between IES-R and STAI-Y (P < 0.001). The results confirm that parents of pediatric cancer patients have a high psychological risk for post-traumatic symptoms, high stress levels, and the presence of clinically significant levels of anxiety.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected several aspects of lives all around the globe, and the unprecedented health crisis has put a strain on health services
The psycho-evolutionary implications of antineoplastic treatments are well known (Moore, 2005; Oppenheim, 2007; Miller et al, 2009; Brand et al, 2017; Stavinoha et al, 2018), pediatric cancer patient is exposed to continuous events over time that can fall within the field of traumatic stress (Bertolotti et al, 2017)
The principal objective of the present study was to explore the psychological impact on parents of children with cancer during the health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected several aspects of lives all around the globe, and the unprecedented health crisis has put a strain on health services. The psycho-evolutionary implications of antineoplastic treatments are well known (Moore, 2005; Oppenheim, 2007; Miller et al, 2009; Brand et al, 2017; Stavinoha et al, 2018), pediatric cancer patient is exposed to continuous events over time that can fall within the field of traumatic stress (Bertolotti et al, 2017). Clinical experience in pediatric oncology shows that trauma can cause psychopathological conditions in survivors (Stuber et al, 2010; Clerici et al, 2014) and described in the literature (Axia, 2004; Guarino, 2006; Bertolotti and Massaglia, 2011; Hildenbrand et al, 2011), framing pediatric cancer as a stressful and traumatic life cycle event (Patenaude and Kupst, 2005; Phipps et al, 2005; Currier et al, 2009)
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