Journal of pediatric oncology nursing : official journal of the Association of Pediatric Oncology Nurses
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J Pediatr Oncol Nurs · Nov 2011
ReviewOdds ratios and confidence intervals: a review for the pediatric oncology clinician.
Professional registered nurses (RNs) are active participants in seeking and interpreting research evidence. To facilitate knowledge transfer for RNs at the bedside, it behooves researchers to present their findings in a format that facilitates understanding. There is also an expectation that clinicians are capable of interpreting results in a meaningful way. ⋯ The purpose of this article is to describe the basic concepts of odds ratios and confidence intervals used in research. These statistical measures are used frequently in quantitative research and are often the principle measure of association that is reported. The more comfortable pediatric oncology clinicians are with the interpretation of odds ratios and confidence intervals, the better equipped they will be to bring relevant research results from the "bench" to the bedside.
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J Pediatr Oncol Nurs · Nov 2011
Concordance between couples reporting their child's quality of life and their decision making in pediatric oncology palliative care.
In children 18 years and younger with cancer and no reasonable chance for cure the authors used a cross-sectional study design to (1) describe concordance between fathers' and mothers' evaluation of quality of life (QoL) and (2) determine parental correlation for how factors such as hope, anticipated QoL, and prolonged survival time influence decisions between supportive care alone versus aggressive chemotherapy. Both parents of 13 children performed PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scales, Acute Cancer Module, and Multidimensional Fatigue Scale. Concordance was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). ⋯ Concordance was variable across QoL domains, better for physical health (ICC = 0.46), nausea (ICC = 0.61), general fatigue (ICC = 0.50), and sleep/rest fatigue (ICC = 0.76). Correlation was variable between parents on the influence of factors on their decision, with particularly poor correlation for importance of hope (r = -0.24). Variable concordance was reported between parental assessment of child QoL and factors influencing their decision making, suggesting parents may have different perspectives in decision making and that understanding both is important in clinical care.