Long-term coping in childhood cancer survivors: influence of illness, treatment and demographic background factors.

In 30 survivors of childhood cancer, long-term psychological coping with experience of disease and treatment was studied in relation to factors associated with illness, treatment and demographic background. Coping was assessed in a prior study, in which three groups of varying levels of coping where delineated (good, 40%; intermediate, 33%; poor, 27%, coping). The present study showed that poor individual coping was related to diagnosis, a shorter time of continuous complete remission, more severe illness and treatment impairments, and lower scores on a test of intellectual abilities. In addition, a longer time of treatment tended to be followed by poorer coping. However, no association was found for gender, parents' occupational level, age at illness onset, neuro-cranial irradiation, irradiation dose (total) or age at investigation. A tentative path-analysis was executed, displaying a model for the relationships between medical and demographic background variables, and for their influence on coping. It was concluded that a complex of factors--associated particularly with severity of disease and treatment--appears to be related to, and affects, coping with the illness experience. Patients' long-term coping with their illness trauma is most likely determined by multiple factors. Intellectual capabilities are related to coping.