Parent/Child Dyad Approach to Symptom Screening for Children With Cancer

"SSPedi and Mini-SSPedi: SSPedi is a symptom assessment scale for children 8-18 years of age that includes 15 symptoms considered most important by children receiving cancer treatment or HSCT, their parents and healthcare professionals. Each symptom is rated on a 5-point Likert scale consisting of 0=not at all bothered, 1=a little, 2=medium, 3=a lot and 4=extremely bothered. The recall period is yesterday or today.~Mini-SSPedi was developed for children 4-7 years of age and is comprised of the same 15 symptoms. Mini-SSPedi has a recall period of today with a 3-point Likert scale consisting of 0=not at all bothered, 2=medium and 4=extremely bothered'. So, the anchors and mid-point are identical to SSPedi. A faces-type scale accompanies the response options and the symptom descriptions are simplified.~Proxy-SSPedi: Proxy-SSPedi is identical to SSPedi except that the leading question refers to your child rather than you. It is designed for children 2-18 years of age."

"Co-SSPedi: Co-SSPedi is based upon either SSPedi (age 8-18) or mini-SSPedi (age 4-7).~Co-SSPedi is meant to be completed by both child and parent together. The format and wording is identical to self-report SSPedi and mini-SSPedi (depending on child age) to maximize the ability of the child to participate in symptom reporting.~The approach uses written instruction that asks the dyad who will hold the device and enter the agreed-upon scores. The instruction then asks one member to read the leading question, each symptom and response options out loud. The child answers how bothered they are by that symptom out loud. The parent then states if they agree or they can offer a different answer. If the answer is different, the instruction asks the dyad to discuss until they agree upon an answer. The agreed-upon answer is then entered into co-SSPedi. This process is repeated for the remaining 14 symptoms."