THE EFFECT OF THERAPEUTIC PLAY ON THE QUALITY OF LIFE AND SYMPTOM CONTROL OF CHILDREN WITH CANCER

Study aimed to investigate effect of therapeutic play on quality of life and symptom control of children with cancer. Participants were 15 children, aged 6-12, who were diagnosed with cancer, and treated in oncology-hematology clinics. Data were collected from two university hospitals between 2019-2021. It was quasi-experimental clinical research with single-group pretest-posttest model. Pediatric Patient Information Form, PedsQL Cancer Module, and Visual Analog Scale for symptoms were used as data collection tools. Mean PedsQL Cancer Module total score of children was 57.97±14.83 before therapeutic play and 62.08±12.97 after therapeutic play. There was no statistical difference between time-dependent median PedsQL Cancer Module total scores of children (p>0.05). According to Visual Analog Scale for symptoms, there was statistically significant difference in all symptoms after therapeutic play intervention (p˂0.05). Study showed that therapeutic play affected symptom control of pediatric patients receiving long cancer treatment. No statistically significant difference was found between scores children obtained from PedsQL Cancer Module Child Report before, during, and after therapeutic play intervention. However, PedsQL Cancer Module Child Report total score increased.