Home Away From Home – Quality of Life Surveys

This is a prospective observational cohort study, where the primary objective of this study is to compare patient and caregiver quality of life and other patient-centered outcomes for inpatient versus outpatient management of neutropenia in children with AML or MDS receiving standard intensive AML frontline chemotherapy.

Local study investigators (pediatric oncologists and study coordinators) at each of the fifteen participating pediatric institutions will communicate on a weekly basis with their inpatient leukemia service to identify AML or MDS patients potentially eligible for study enrollment. Once identified, study personnel will review each patient for study eligibility criteria. Three visits with the patient and their caregivers will occur: a screening visit, initial survey visit, and a follow-up visit.

Screening Visit: The eligibility criteria for participation will be confirmed prior to approaching for consent. Eligible patients interested in the study will be approached for consent at any time from AML/MDS diagnosis through last day of chemotherapy in the treatment course under study. In some cases, the patient's caregivers may not be present in the hospital to provide consent. In these cases, study personnel will obtain verbal consent from the caregivers and child assent (if appropriate).

Visit 1 will occur prior to the last day of chemotherapy administration in the course. This visit will include:

2 Brief demographic surveys to capture covariates unavailable in the medical record
Baseline health-related quality of life (HRQOL) surveys
A baseline financial toxicity assessment

Surveys will be administered via paper or a smart device and will last a total of 15-30 minutes per respondent. In the case that the child is 5 years of age or older, the child self-report and parent proxy-report scales will be separately administered to the child and caregiver, respectively. If the child is under 5 years of age, only the parent-proxy version will be administered. Only the caregiver completes the baseline financial toxicity assessment. We will provide a $25 gift card to each child-parent dyad upon completion of the baseline surveys

Visit 2 will occur within the period after absolute neutrophil count recovery and ideally prior to the start of the subsequent course of chemotherapy, but no later than the last day of chemotherapy in that next treatment course. This visit will include:

Follow-up HRQOL surveys
Patient-centered outcome survey developed previously from qualitative interviews of AML patients and their caregivers
A follow-up financial toxicity assessment

Surveys will be administered via paper or a smart device and will last a total of 15-30 minutes per respondent. In the case that the child is 5 years of age or older, the child self-report and parent proxy-report scales will be administered to the child and caregiver, respectively. If the child is under 5 years of age, only the parent-proxy version will be administered. The follow-up financial toxicity assessment and the patient-centered outcome survey are completed by the caregiver only. We will provide a $25 gift card to each child-parent dyad upon completion of the follow-up surveys.