‘He Never Liked Sport Anyway’ - Mother's Views of Young PeopleCoping With a Bone Tumour in the Lower Limb

[摘要] Purpose:Treatment for a bone tumour can compromise quality of life (QOL), especially for young patients. We usedqualitative methods to assess mothers' views of patients' experiences and their coping strategies at approximately 6 monthsafter diagnosis (T1:n=12) and 12–18 months later (T2:n=11).Subjects:Mothers of young people (aged 6–22 years) who were undergoing treatment for either osteosarcoma or Ewing'ssarcoma in the lower limb took part.Methods:A semi-structured interview was devised to assess participation in sport, social life, schooling and general mobility.Interviews were transcribed and analysed using content analysis.Results:Mothers reported a number of situations in which QOL was compromised, and these remained relatively constantover time (mean=4.25 at T1 and 4.27 at T2). However, strategies to manage these difficulties changed from Problem(constructive attempts to deal with challenges) to Emotion (managing the situation through use of emotions) focusedcoping from T1 to T2.Discussion:Although the sample size is small, our results suggest that patients adopt a variety of coping strategies to dealwith the physical and social restrictions associated with disease and treatment. The findings suggest that young peoplecontinue to experience many stresses up to 18 months after diagnosis. The shift from Problem to Emotion focussed copingover time may suggest a degree of acceptance of practical problems.

[学科分类] 肿瘤学