Chronic disease in adolescence is followed by many negative effects of somatic and psychosocial nature. These effects can be observed especially in oncological and rheumatologic diseases. This is due not only to the character of the disease, its chronic course, but also aggressive treatment. The objective of this work was to evaluate relationship between pain experience and sleep, fatigue and physical, social and intellectual functioning of teenage patients.
124 adolescents, 14 to 20 years old, hospitalized because of cancer and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis participated in the study. Level of experienced pain was measured with VAS--Visual Analog Scale and NRS--Numeric Rating Scale. Quality of sleep was assessed with Polish version of Melzacks Questionnaire. Fatigue and activity were assessed with a questionnaire of our own construction.
Pain was a significant symptom accompanying rheumatologic and oncological disease, although the sources of pain experience were different. Significant percentage of participants suffered from sleep disruption and activity impairment. An important relationship between increase of pain intensity and sleep disruption in oncological patients was found. Significant relationships between pain intensity vs. fatigue and also pain intensity vs. functioning were identified.
Pain, fatigue and sleep disruption account for important factors in rheumatologic and oncological diseases. They also cause decrease in physical, social and mental functioning of teenage patients. Results show that there is a significant relationship between outcomes of disease, its treatment and impact on functioning and developmental course of adolescents. Care delivered to those patients must be integrated and involve multidisciplinary factors.