Correlation of Pediatric Palliative Screening Scale and Quality of Life in Pediatric Cancer Patients

Palliative care in children is used to be only intended for those in near end-of-life phase. Ideally, palliative intervention should be given since the first time of cancer diagnosis. Palliative care is introduced from the beginning of the treatment by acknowledging that it helps to ensure an ongoing focus on the quality of life (QOL) so that children still can enjoy their life. Several approaches have been used to identify children with the need of palliative care.

The aim was to describe the use of Paediatric Palliative Screening Scale (PaPaS Scale) and its depiction to the QOL of children with malignancies.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in sixty children age 2-18 years with malignancies, who were consulted to the palliative team.

Sixty participants were recruited randomly during the study. PaPaS Scale and QOL (using PedsQL™ cancer module 3.0) were assessed at the same time. Cutoff points of 67 for parent-proxy report and 68.9 for self-report were used, those who have scores <67 and <68.9 were grouped as low QOL group. PaPaS scale was divided into three groups: (1) no palliative care needs (score 10-14), (2) considered palliative care (15-24), and (3) need for palliative (≥25).

Differences between palliative score and QOL were analyzed using Chi-square and Fisher test.

Children who have lower QOL based on parent-proxy report (<67) included 25 children; they consist of 16 children (64%) with score 10-14, four children (16%) with score 15-24, and five children (20%) with score ≥25. Children with higher QOL (16 children) consist of ten children (62.5%) with score 10-14, four children (25%) scores 15-24, and two children (12.5%) with score ≥25. In the self-report, children with low QOL (eight children) consist of four children (50%) with score 10-14, four children (50%) with score 15-24, and no children with score ≥ 25. Children with higher QOL (11 children) consist of eight children (72.2%) with score 10-14, two children (18.2%) with scores 15-24, and one child (9.1%) with score ≥25. Statistical analysis showed no correlation between PaPaS score and QOL of children with malignancies in parent-proxy report (P = 0.89) and self-report (P = 0.37).

This study showed that children with malignancies already had lower QOL despite the low PaPaS scale they had. The results of this study support the provision of early palliative intervention, starting with a small proportion of intervention to improve the QOL of cancer child.