Supportive care needs of parents caring for children with leukemia: a latent profile analysis

Parents' supportive care needs directly affect their quality of life and the quality of care for their children diagnosed with leukemia.

To identify supportive care needs of Chinese parents in the unobserved subgroups who care for children with leukemia and to examine the associations of the latent class membership with individual characteristics.

A multicenter cross-sectional survey study was conducted. A total of 221 parents who had children with leukemia were surveyed in China with the Chinese version of the Supportive Care Needs Survey for Caregivers of Children with Pediatric Cancer (SCNS-C-Ped-C). Latent profile analysis (LPA) was applied to identify latent classes of parents according to supportive care needs. Binary logistic regression model was used to identify the association between individual characteristics and the latent class membership.

LPA results suggested a 2-class solution: class 1-"high supportive care needs" class (n = 126, 57.0%) and class 2-"low supportive care needs" class (n = 95, 43.0%). The class membership was significantly associated with children's treatment duration, family income, distance to the hospital, parents' caregiving ability, and coping strategy.

There existed two distinct classes of parents caring for children with leukemia on the basis of supportive care needs. Children's treatment duration, parents' socio-demographic characteristics, caregiving ability, and coping strategy significantly influenced class membership.

This study highlights the need for tailored interventions to address the specific needs of parents, especially those in the "high supportive care needs" class. Healthcare providers should consider factors related to the class membership when developing the supportive care interventions. Addressing these supportive care needs could improve both parental well-being and the quality of care provided to their children.