• Child Health Nursing Research
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.286-293
• /
• 1998

The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of anxiety for the mothers of leukemic children and to provide the fundamental data for the better performance of caring to them. The subjects were 292 mothers : 100 mothers whose children had a leukemia, 80 mothers whose children had taken a tonsillectomy, 112 mothers whose children with medical disease except cancer. The data were collected through The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory of Spilberger and analyzed by t-test, ANOVA Scheffe test. The results were as follows ; 1. The state anxiety mean score of mothers with leukemic children was 54.16. 2. The state anxiety of mothers with leukemic children was higher than that of the rest (F=8.00, P=0.0004). 3. There was no significant difference in anxiety of mothers with leukemic children in relation to leukemic children's and their mother's general characteristics.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.1731-1738
• /
• 2014

The life of a mother undergoes a dramatic change after a child is diagnosed with cancer. The present study aimed to determine effects on the everyday life process and health status of mothers with children suffering from leukemia. This qualitative study was based on a grounded theory approach with sixteen mothers. The results indicate that after onset of disease in their children, they marginalized their own health and tied their identities to taking care of the child and keeping the child healthy by ignoring themselves, becoming imprisoned in a taking-care-of-the-child position, and trying very hard for seek balance and stability Enduring physical pressures on the one hand, and constantly attempting to achieve balance and stability in family processes on the other hand, gradually cause exhaustion. It seems that health care providers and nurses should pay much more attention to the health status of this group of mothers.

• Child Health Nursing Research
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.51-61
• /
• 2001

The purpose of the descriptive correlation study was to examine relations among the hope, the burden and the family function in mothers caring for children with cancer. 145 mothers completed the three questionaires of the study divided into tree sections: a) The Hope Scale, b) The Burden Scale, c) FACES-Ⅲ. The collected data was analysed with t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe test and Pearson correlation coefficients. The results were as follows: 1) The average age of mothers of children with cancer was 35.6 years old and the ages between 30 to 39 were the most abundant. 57.3％ of the mothers had an education level of below high school education and 66.0％ had religion. The average age of the children was 8.6 years old. Ages between 1 to 7 were the most and 60.8％ were diagnosed as leukemia. 2) Regarding the section of degree of burden, mothers of children with cancer marked 2.6 out of 5, and the degree of hope 3.2 out of 4. The result for family function came out to be 3.5 out of 5, an average of family cohesion of 3.9 and family adaptation of 3.1. 3) There were significantly less burden to the mothers who were living together with a spouse compared to the mothers who were not. Also mothers who replied that they preserved good health came out to be exposed to less burden compared to the mothers who did not. In analysing hope according to the general characteristics of mothers of children with cancer, mothers who were employed marked high in the degree of hope compared to unemployed mothers. Furthermore, the degree of family cohesion marked higher with mothers who had higher education of college graduate, mothers with religion and mothers with a monthly family income of over ￦3,000,000, compared to the group of mothers with lower education of high school graduate, non-religious or with a monthly family income of less than ￦1,000,000. 4) Excluding the fact that the group sorted with children diagnosed as leukemia marked a perceivably high score regarding family cohesion, compared to groups with other cancers, the degree of burden, hope and family cohesion did not show any noticeable difference according to characteristics of children with different cancers. 5) In the correlation of the hope, the burden and the family function regarding the mothers of children with cancer, the burden did not have any manifest relationship with hope or family function. However, the degree of hope and family function cohesion had a direct proportional relationship, as family cohesion marked higher when the degree of hope were high.

• Child Health Nursing Research
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.249-261
• /
• 2000

The purpose of this study were to identify the quality of life for the mothers of hospitalized chronic pediatric patients, and to explore the factors affecting the QOL of those mothers. The subjects were 201 mothers whose children had hospitalized at one University hospital with chronic diseases. Data were collected from the December, 1997 to December, 1998. We used a revised QOL instrument consisting of 34 items, 5 point likert scale based on the Noh's QOL instrument. The revised QOL consists of six subscales, those are physical status and function, self esteem, emotional status, economic status, relationship with family members, and relationship with neighborhood. Data were analyzed by t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation using SPSS-PC. The results were as follows: 1. The mean score of quality of life for the mothers of chronic pediatric patients was 100.31, and item mean was 2.95. In subscale analysis, item mean of economic status was the lowest, and that of relationship with family members was the highest. 2. Correlations between characteristics of chronic pediatric patients, their mothers and QOL of mothers were as follows; 1) Total QOL of mothers had a significant positive relationship with progressing time relapse after diagnosing and age of mothers. There was a significant negative relationship between the total QOL of mothers and number of hospitalization of their children. 2) QOL on self esteem and economic status had a significant relationship with age of pediatric patients, the time relapse after diagnosis, and age of mothers. Total number of family members and QOL on economic status showed a significant positive relationship. QOL on emotional status, economic status, and relationship with family members of mothers showed negative correlations with the number of hospitalization of their children. 3. Followings were the result of difference in QOL among different demographic cha- racteristics of the subjects. 1) QOL on economic status of mothers was significantly higher when fathers of pediatric patients had jobs. 2) Total QOL score, QOL on emotional status, and QOL on relationship with neighborhood were significantly higher when mothers of pediatric patients had spouses. 3) QOL on self esteem of mothers was significantly higher when mothers had religion. 4. Followings were the result of difference in QOL among different diagnosis of the children. 1) Total QOL score of mothers whose children had congenital heart disease was higher than that of mothers whose children had leukemia and cancer. 2) QOL on emotional status, economic status, and relationship with family members of mothers whose children had congenital heart disease were higher than those of mothers whose children had leukemia, cancer, and epilepsy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.781-784
• /
• 2014

Background: Although the cause in most cases of childhood leukemia is not known, the contribution of environmental risk factors in the context of genetic predisposition has been reported with inconsistent results. The aim of this study was to examine association of childhood leukemia with maternal factors especially during pregnancy, to help in avoiding risk factors. Materials and Methods: This case-control study included children younger than 18 years diagnosed with leukemia from 2008 to 2012. Controls were randomly selected and individually matched to cases with respect to age, sex, and residency. All variables were compared between cases and control to determine any significant association with leukemia. Results: Statistically significant associations between risk of childhood leukemia with mother's education (p=0.001), occupation (p=0.0005) and pesticides exposure (p=0.005) during pregnancy were found. However, there were no significant links with maternal age (p=0.090), history of fetal loss (0.85), history of radiography during pregnancy (p=0.400), history of drug intake (p=0.689) and infection (p=0.696) during pregnancy. Conclusions: The results showed increased risk of leukemia in children whose mothers were working in agriculture and were exposed to pesticides during pregnancy. The further study needs to be investigated to know association of various maternal risk factors with leukemia which remained unknown in this study.

• The Korean Nurse
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.73-88
• /
• 1990

This study was done in order to identify symptoms of grief and patterns of coping in mothers of chronically ill children. Nurses, as health professionals, must understand helpful coping methods for mothers who have chronically ill children. Based on this knowledge, nurses can develop appropriate nursing intervention strategies, and so help the mothers to develop effective ways of coping and give support to mothers with chronically ill children in process of coping with this grief. The research questions guiding this research were: 1. what type of grief does the mother have at the time of child's diagnosis and at present\ulcorner 2. what are the problems confronting the mother 3. what are the coping patterns of the mother\ulcorner 4. is there a difference according to child's diagnosis in the mother's grief and coping pattern\ulcorner The subject for this study were obtained by taking a convenience sample of 120 mothers with a chronically ill child. Interviews took place in four medical school hospitals and one medical center in Seoul from March 19th to May 16th 1990. The tools used in this study were Mcfarlan's(1983), Grief contents, Folkman & Lazarus(1983), Ways of Coping and Hymovich's (1983) the Chronicity Impact and Coping Instrument. The findings were as follows; 1. Grief items had a maximum score of three points. The highest item scrores at the time of diagnosis, were in order, heart broken, talkative, and could not do anything, at the present, 'talkative', 'heart broken' and 'busy myself with other things'. 2. The problems confronting the mothers were 'worry about ill child's future', 'her responsibilities in taking care of the ill child.' 3. Most of the mothers used similar ways of coping, that is 'problem focused coping', 'detachment', 'wishful thinking', 'seeking social support" and 'focusing on the positive and hardly any of them used 'tension reduction'. 4. There was a sinificant difference in coping methods according to the childs diagnosis, leukemia, cancer hemophillia and nephrotic syndrome. The most frequently used coping method was detachment, especially for the mother of the child with. 5. At the time of diagnosis there was a positive correlation between the level of grief and the coping method of detachment and seeking social support.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.135-147
• /
• 2001

The aim of this descriptive study was to identify the impact of chronic illness on children and their families. Mothers of 177 children with chronic disease were recruited from aged one to 17 years hospitalizing the pediatric nursing unit at one university hospital. 28 questions. a self-complete maternal questionnaire developed by researchers based on literatures and 'The Impact of Childhood Illness Scale' (Hoare & Russell, 1995) assess four aspects of the child's and family's lifestyle with two dimensions for each question. the frequency of the problem and its importance of concern that it cause. In the data analysis. Pearson correlation coefficients and analysis of variance were used to test any association and a statistical comparisons. between individual variables and the impact on child's and family's lifestyle. The results were as follows: 1) There were the higher mean scores on the importance dimension than on the frequency dimension on total impact on child's and family's lifestyle. On the importance dimension. mothers had much higher levels of concern about impact on child's development and adjustment among subscales. On the frequency dimension, mothers had much higher levels of concern about impact on the family daily living on subscales. 2) The impact on child's and family's lifestyle related on individual variables were: (1) On the importance dimension. there was statistically significant low in the impact on child's development and adjustment among subscales in older parent group compared with it of younger parent group. (2) On the frequency dimension. there were statistically significant high in the impact on child's development and adjustment among subscales in the children with leukemia or cancer compared with it of the other children who had another chronic illnesses. And there were statistically significant high in the impact on child's development and adjustment among subscales in less than high school educated mothers compared with it of mothers who was educated college level. (3) On the frequency dimension. There were statistically significant high in the impact on family's daily living among subscales and total impact on child's and family's lifestyle in female children. (4) There was positive correlation between impact on parents daily living and frequency of child's hospitalization on the frequency dimension. but there was negative correlation between the two variables on the importance dimension. (5) There was positive correlation between impact of chronic illness and its treatment and duration of child's hospitalization on the frequency dimension. In conclusion. these results were reflected by the high level of concerns about impact on child's development and adjustment although mothers had frequently responded about the impact on the family daily living. We suggest consistent intervening program that help the family empowering to make children live with and adjust to their chronic illnesses from the point of diagnosis and after discharge from the hospital. We also suggest these results can be utilized as a useful data in the practice of home health nursing for children who have chronic illnesses and their families.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.636-652
• /
• 1992

This study identified the impact of childhood cancer on the Korean family. The purpose was to contribute knowledge for family nursing and pediatric hospice care practice with sick children and their families. This descriptive study was conducted during a 6 month period with children who were being treated for cancer at six university hospitals in Seoul. The data were gathered from members of 68 families ; 24(Group A), with a child newly diagnosed with cancer : 27(Group B), with a child under treatment and without complications, and 17 (Group C), with a child in relapse. Medical records, structured questionnaires and interviews were used for data collection. The questionnaires and interview schedules had been used previously in Martinson's research in the USA and China. The findings, conclusions, and suggestions are as follows. 1. The impact of childhood cancer on the family. Members of the family experienced fear, helplessness, guilty feelings, and anger at the time of the initial diagnosis and at relapse. Mothers complained of headache, anorexia and poor appetite, weight loss, sleep disturbance, and bad dreams. Many of the fathers either lost or changed jobs, and all working mothers stopped working. Half the parents reported changes in their marital relationships such as frequent quarrels but also stronger unity. Family members perceived cancer as the most frightening disease. Change in their world view was expressed as living on faith understanding suffering, determining to live a better life, wanting to live an upright life and valuing health as the most important. Religious activities are found most helpful through this difficult experience. Financial debt due to the treatment and care of the sick child, burdened 22 families. The above mentioned impact was most evidant in Group B(those presently undergoing treatment) and Group C(those in relapse). Findings indicate that nursing care should embrace the family of a child who is being treated for cancer. 2. Characteristics of the child with cancer The majority of the children in this sample had a diagnosis of leukemia. Their mean age was 6.8 and the ratio of boys to girls was 1.12 ; 1. The mean hospitalization frequency was 13.5 times and the mean duration of illness was 16.8 months. Most of 1.he children perceived cancer as the most frightening disease ; 32.7% of the children described their sickness as serious. Children in Group C were hospitalized more frequently, stayed in hospital for longer periods, and expressed their sickness as quite serious more often than the other two groups. These findings indicate how much comprehensive pediatric hospice nursing care services are needed along with relevant research and nursing education. 3. Characteristics of the families. The mean age of the father was 39.5 and the mother, 36,6 ; they are in their most productive life period. Mothers especially expressed feelings of financial uneasiness and powerlessness about giving up their jobs, and guilty feelings for not providing enough care and concern to other children due to taking care of the sick one. The burden of caring for the sick child can bring negative changes in family dynamics which they think provoke potential health problems in members of the family These findings suggest a need for nursing support and counselling resources. Findings also suggest the need for ethical inquiry about such questions as who should give information to the child in regard to diagnosis and prognosis, when, and how. Other suggestions included : 1) Quality health care for childhood cancer such as home care and pediatric hospice programs should be established. 2) Special and practical consideration for long-term patients should be made in the present insurance coverage. The reimbursement period for long-term patients should be lengthened. 3) Further in-depth qualitative studies are needed. 4) Education programs including guided practice experience for pediatric hospice care practitioners are needed.