Author Description

This dissertation, "The Impact of Leukemia and Its Therapy-related Symptoms on the Physical and Psychological Well-being Among Chinese Children in Mainland: an Exploratory Study" by Wei, Xia,, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Background: Research indicates that leukemia and therapy-related symptoms are associated with numerous physiological and psychological health problems for children. However, it is still unknown how leukemia and therapy-related symptoms impact the physical and psychological well-being of children in mainland China and how the children deal with these problems. A review of the literature reveals that there are no studies investigating the impact of leukemia and therapy-related symptoms on the physical and psychological well-being of children with leukemia in Mainland China. Although several studies have been conducted in western countries or Hong Kong to examine this phenomenon, cultural discrepancies make these findings inapplicable to Mainland China. This study aimed to address the literature gap by (1) comparing the quality of life and physical activity levels between children hospitalized with leukemia and their healthy counterparts; (2) exploring the impact of therapy-related symptoms on the physical and psychological well-being of children with leukemia; (3) examining the coping strategies adopted by children hospitalized with leukemia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. A total of 125 children who underwent leukemia treatment and 243 healthy children randomly selected from the community in Beijing were invited to participate in the study. Particip