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Perspectives toward oral mucositis prevention from parents and health care professionals in pediatric cancer

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Abstract

Purpose

The objectives of this study were: (1) to describe parents and health care professionals (HCPs) perceived importance of oral mucositis prevention in children with cancer; (2) To describe utilities and willingness-to-pay (WTP) to prevent mucositis.

Methods

Respondents included parents of children receiving intensive chemotherapy for leukemia/lymphoma or undergoing stem cell transplantation and HCPs caring for children with cancer. Importance of mild and severe oral mucositis was estimated using a visual analogue scale (VAS). Mucositis-associated utilities were elicited using the time trade-off technique (TTO). WTP to avoid mucositis was obtained using contingent valuation. These techniques quantify how much time or money the participant is willing to relinquish in order to prevent mucositis.

Results

Eighty-two parents and 60 HCPs were included. Parents and HCPs believed mild mucositis to be of similar importance (median VAS 2.5 versus 3.6; P = 0.357) while parents considered severe mucositis less important than HCPs (median VAS 8.3 versus 9.0; P < 0.0001). No differences in parent versus HCP responses were seen with TTO (mild or severe mucositis) and most parents were not willing to trade any survival time to prevent severe mucositis. Parents were willing to pay significantly more than HCPs to prevent mild mucositis (average median WTP $1,371 CAN vs. $684 CAN, P = 0.031). No differences were seen in WTP to prevent severe mucositis.

Conclusions

Parents and HCP believe severe mucositis to be important, although it is more important to HCPs. Parents would not be willing to reduce life expectancy to eliminate mucositis.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Richard Wing, Tania Chung, and Celia Lai in terms of patient recruitment and data management. The project was supported by a Connaught New Staff Matching Grant from the University of Toronto. LS is supported by a New Investigator award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. This project was also possible due to the generous support of the employees of Kraft Canada Inc.

Conflict of interest

No conflicts of interest to declare.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Program in Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Marie-Chantal Ethier, Deborah Tomlinson & Lillian Sung

  2. Department of Dentistry, The Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Peter Judd

  3. Division of Haematology/Oncology, The Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, M5G 1X8, Canada

    John Doyle, Adam Gassas, Ahmed Naqvi & Lillian Sung

  4. Department of Dentistry and Paediatrics, University of Toronto, 27 King’s College Circle, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Peter Judd

  5. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Ave. N., PO Box 19024, Seattle, WA, USA

    Dean A. Regier

  6. 27 King’s College Circle, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Lillian Sung

Authors
  1. Marie-Chantal Ethier
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  2. Dean A. Regier
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  3. Deborah Tomlinson
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  4. Peter Judd
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  5. John Doyle
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  6. Adam Gassas
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  7. Ahmed Naqvi
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  8. Lillian Sung
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Correspondence to Lillian Sung.

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Ethier, MC., Regier, D.A., Tomlinson, D. et al. Perspectives toward oral mucositis prevention from parents and health care professionals in pediatric cancer. Support Care Cancer 20, 1771–1777 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-011-1274-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-011-1274-x

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