THE DISTRESS OF ADOLESCENTS WITH CANCER IN ROMANIA. PILOT STUDY
THE DISTRESS OF ADOLESCENTS WITH CANCER IN ROMANIA. PILOT STUDY

Summary/Abstract: Objective. The objective of this study was to analyze the emotional distress among the adolescents with cancer. This distress negatively affects both the health-related quality of life and the treatment outcomes. Material and method. 42 adolescents (18 female and 24 male; 15 years +-1.8 SD) were included in the study and we emphasize that to them were applied the followings: a short scale of distress with 6 items and a scale of emotional thermometers, at the start of treatment and 6 months after the start of treatment. All the adolescents participating in the study benefited from the interventions of the non-formal Brain Station program and the formal program of the Hospital School. The study took place between September 2023 and June 2024. Results. At the beginning of the treatment, stress had a significant influence on distress, explaining approximately 21.49% of its total variance (r2=0.2149, p<0.05). After the interventions of the non-formal Brain Station program and the formal Hospital School program, stress continued to have a considerable influence on the distress, but explained only 9.54% of the variance (r2=0.0954, p<0.05). Also, the results of the study indicated that, 6 months after starting treatment: depression decreased significantly, anger decreased marginally significantly, while stress, anxiety, and need for help did not show statistically significant decreases. Conclusions. Interventions aimed to reducing stress early in treatment may have a relevant impact on reducing distress relative to interventions applied later. Thus, it was essential to pay a special attention to the stress management in the early stages of the oncology treatment, in order to maximize the reduction of distress in patients.

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