The unprecedented pandemic crisis has caused serious changes in the medical care for cancer patients, thereby mandating research studies to focus and understand the psychosocial issues faced by paediatric cancer patients during the pandemic lockdown in India.
Paediatric cancer patients irrespective of diagnosis and treatment status were assessed for psychosocial issues (N = 103) and distress (n = 74).
Caregivers were chosen as the primary respondents except for distress score in order to obtain data with better clarity and comprehension.
The data was summarized using descriptive statistics; chi square analysis was adopted to find the association between psychosocial issues and outcome variables; multivariate logistic regression was used to find the predictors of treatment status and distress.
Paediatric cancer patients experienced significant physical and psychological issues pertaining to the unprecedented pandemic lockdown and its associated changes with the cancer treatment and interruptions.
Keywords: COVID-19; lockdown; paediatric cancer; psycho-oncology; psychosocial issues; treatment interruption.