Follow-up care of adolescent survivors of childhood cancer: The role of health beliefs

Lupatsch, Judith E.; Wengenroth, Laura; Rueegg, Corina S.; Teuffel, Oliver; Gumy-Pause, Fabienne; Kuehni, Claudia E.; Michel, Gisela (2016). Follow-up care of adolescent survivors of childhood cancer: The role of health beliefs. Pediatric blood & cancer, 63(2), pp. 318-25. Wiley 10.1002/pbc.25755

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BACKGROUND

Little is known about follow-up care attendance of adolescent survivors of childhood cancer, and which factors foster or hinder attendance. Attending follow-up care is especially important for adolescent survivors to allow for a successful transition into adult care. We aimed to (i) describe the proportion of adolescent survivors attending follow-up care; (ii) describe adolescents' health beliefs; and (iii) identify the association of health beliefs, demographic, and medical factors with follow-up care attendance.

PROCEDURE

Of 696 contacted adolescent survivors diagnosed with cancer at ≤16 years of age, ≥5 years after diagnosis, and aged 16-21 years at study, 465 (66.8%) completed the Swiss Childhood Cancer Survivor Study questionnaire. We assessed follow-up care attendance and health beliefs, and extracted demographic and medical information from the Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry. Cross-sectional data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression models.

RESULTS

Overall, 56% of survivors reported attending follow-up care. Most survivors (80%) rated their susceptibility for late effects as low and believed that follow-up care may detect and prevent late effects (92%). Few (13%) believed that follow-up care is not necessary. Two health beliefs were associated with follow-up care attendance (perceived benefits: odds ratio [OR]: 1.56; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.07-2.27; perceived barriers: OR: 0.70; 95%CI: 0.50-1.00).

CONCLUSIONS

We show that health beliefs are associated with actual follow-up care attendance of adolescent survivors of childhood cancer. A successful model of health promotion in adolescent survivors should, therefore, highlight the benefits and address the barriers to keep adolescent survivors in follow-up care. Pediatr Blood Cancer © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM)
04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Gynaecology, Paediatrics and Endocrinology (DFKE) > Clinic of Paediatric Medicine

Graduate School:

Graduate School for Health Sciences (GHS)

UniBE Contributor:

Lupatsch, Judith Eva, Wengenroth, Laura, Rüegg, Corina Silvia, Teuffel, Marc Oliver, Kühni, Claudia, Michel, Gisela

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 360 Social problems & social services

ISSN:

1545-5009

Publisher:

Wiley

Funders:

[4] Swiss National Science Foundation

Language:

English

Submitter:

Anette van Dorland

Date Deposited:

28 Sep 2015 11:36

Last Modified:

02 Mar 2023 23:26

Publisher DOI:

10.1002/pbc.25755

PubMed ID:

26398593

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Swiss Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, adolescent survivors, follow-up care, health beliefs

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.72022

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/72022

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