Identifying Typologies of Symptoms and Functional Impairments in Chinese Children With Leukemia and Their Population Characteristics: A Latent Profile Analysis.

Background: Symptom distress and functional impairments in children with leukemia directly affect their quality of life.

Objectives: To identify subgroups of symptom distress and functional impairments in Chinese children with leukemia and to examine the associations of the latent classes with individual characteristics.

Methods: This multicenter cross-sectional survey study recruited children with leukemia who received chemotherapy in 4 hospitals in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong Province. The participants were surveyed via PROMIS-25 (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Pediatric-25 Profile). Latent profile analysis and multinomial logistic regression model were performed to identify subgroups of symptom distress and function impairments among children with leukemia.

Results: Latent profile analysis results suggested the classification of 3 subgroups: profile 1: "moderate symptom distress, moderate mobility impairment with fair peer relationship function" group (69, 28.3%), profile 2: "mild symptom distress, no mobility impairment with good peer relationship function" group (97, 39.8%), and profile 3: "no symptom distress, no mobility impairment with good peer relationship function" group (78, 32.0%). Sociodemographic characteristics, including gender of the children, gender and marital status of the parents, average monthly income of the family, and reimbursement ratio of treatment expenses, had significant associations with the latent profile membership ( P < .05).

Conclusion: This study identified 3 distinct profiles of symptom distress and functional impairments in children with leukemia and found significant associations between these profiles and sociodemographic characteristics.

Implications for practice: The classification of the 3 latent profiles in children with leukemia helps to provide targeted supportive intervention to those children and their families.