Pediatric blood & cancer
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Pediatric blood & cancer · May 2013
Assessment of potential bias from non-participation in a dynamic clinical cohort of long-term childhood cancer survivors: results from the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort Study.
To evaluate long-term health outcomes among childhood cancer survivors, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (SJCRH) has established the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort Study (SJLIFE), comprised of adult survivors who undergo risk-directed clinical assessments. As in any human research study, SJLIFE participants are volunteers who may not represent the source population from which they were recruited. A lack of proportional representation could result in biased estimates of exposure-outcome associations. We compared available demographic, disease, and neighborhood level characteristics between participants and the source population to assess the potential for selection bias. ⋯ Our results indicate a lack of substantive differences in the relative frequencies of demographic, disease, or neighborhood characteristics between participants and the source population in SJLIFE, thus alleviating serious concerns about selective non-participation in this cohort. Bias in specific exposure-outcome relations is still possible and will be considered in individual analyses.
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Pediatric blood & cancer · May 2013
National trends in incidence rates of hospitalization for stroke in children with sickle cell disease.
The success of primary stroke prevention for children with sickle cell disease (SCD) throughout the United States is unknown. Therefore, we aimed to generate national incidence rates of hospitalization for stroke in children with sickle cell disease (SCD) before and after publication of the Stroke Prevention Trial in Sickle Cell Anemia (STOP trial) in 1998. ⋯ After publication of the STOP trial and hydroxyurea licensure in 1998, the incidence of hospitalization for stroke in children with SCD decreased across the United States, suggesting that primary stroke prevention has been effective nationwide, but opportunity for improvement remains.
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Pediatric blood & cancer · May 2013
Factors associated with poor quality of life in survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphoma.
Previous studies of health-related quality of life (QoL) in childhood cancer survivors have hardly focused on factors associated with poor QoL. ⋯ Significantly more LTSs than age-matched NORMs experienced poor QoL. Clinically significant associations with fatigue, anxiety, depression, obesity and insomnia were observed, which may be amenable for interventions, and thereby improvement of QoL in LTSs.