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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol 2022; 43(03): 262-269
DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1750208
Original Article

Child's Understanding of Cancer when Faced with Advancing Disease: A Retrospective Chart Review

Arunangshu Ghoshal 
1   Department of Palliative Medicine, Tata Memorial Hospital, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
,
Mary Ann Muckaden
1   Department of Palliative Medicine, Tata Memorial Hospital, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
,
Chavi Garg
2   Village Mosaic, Fontbonne Ministries, Sisters of St. Joseph, Toronto, Canada
,
Jayanthi Iyengar
1   Department of Palliative Medicine, Tata Memorial Hospital, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
,
Anuja Damani
1   Department of Palliative Medicine, Tata Memorial Hospital, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
,
K.V. Ganpathy
3   JASCAP (Jeet Association for Support to Cancer Patients), Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
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Funding None.
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Abstract

Introduction It is difficult to comprehend a child's understanding of disease-related information as they might be unwilling to talk or feel inhibited about raising their concerns. Understanding children's perception is important to facilitate better communication in palliative care.

Objectives To study child's understanding of advancing disease when referred to the Pediatric Palliative Care Services.

Materials and Methods A retrospective chart review of 34 case record forms from March 2019 to March 2020 was conducted after obtaining a waiver of consent and Institutional Ethics Committee approval. The inclusion criteria were children having advanced cancer referred for palliative care, incomplete records were excluded. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results Twenty-three were male, and 11 were female children, the mean age was 12 years. Five major themes were identified—the child's understanding of disease diagnosis and prognosis, nature of communication between parents and the child, barriers to communication, child's means of support, and interventions used during counseling.

Conclusion Communication between children suffering from advanced cancer and their parents/caregivers is a sensitive issue, and noncommunication is often due to mutual effort to shield each other from the stress of difficult conversations. Lack of communication contributes to poor coping and forces children to seek comfort in other sources leaving parents distressed. Psychological interventions like resource building and psychoeducation are effective.

Keywords

cancer - palliative care - pediatrics - thematic analysis - qualitative research - chart review


Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
02. Juli 2022

© 2022. Indian Society of Medical and Paediatric Oncology. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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