Self-Reported Worries Among Long-Term Survivors of Childhood Cancer and Their Peers

Abstract

This study examined sell-reported worries of long-lerm survivors or' childhood cancer. Three stages of analysis were conducted. Stage I included a comparative analysis of long-term survivors and young people without a history oi cancer. Stage 2 drew on a hospital-based sample of long-term survivors and a qualitative analysis of the open-ended comments from a panel of 20 additional survivors, to examine the reliability and validity of the results from Stage I. Stage 3 examined factors that influenced variation in degree of worries among survivors in the first sample. Hie findings suggest that in several related areas of general health and self-image, the survivors worried less than the comparison sample did. However, in areas related specifically to cancer, the survivors1 degree of worry was higher than the degree reported by the comparison sample. These results are discussed in the context of the debate about the prevalence of psychopathology and psychological distress among long-term survivors of childhood cancer.