The Relationship between Type of Cancer and Parent's Psychosocial Risks

Objective: Support of parents of children with cancer requires health care personnel to be knowledgeable about the relationship between characteristics of parents of children with cancer and their psychosocial risks. This study thus was conducted to fulfill this aim in South-East of Iran.

Method: Using the Psychosocial Assessment Tool- Revised (PAT-R) for parents of children with cancer, 200 parents of these children in two hospitals supervised by Kerman University of Medical Sciences was assessed.

Result: The mean of category of "parents' stress reactions" (mean= 2.77, p=0, SD=0.47) was higher among parent of cancerous child with age ranged between 0-1 years compared to the others. The mean category of "parents' stress reactions" was higher among parents of children with Wilms tumor (mean= 2.277, p=0.005, SD=0.70) compared to the others. The mean of category of "family beliefs" was higher among parents of children with ALL (mean= 1.59, p=0.03, SD=0.32) compared to the others.

Conclusion: Nurses are required to give timely and accurate information to the parents about the type of cancer, its complications and its treatment as well. Doing this may reduce parents' stress, especially those who are younger, and involved with some special cancer such as Willms tumor.