BackgroundRecent studies about inter‐reporter differences and patient‐reported outcomes (PROs) in childhood cancer from Western countries showed that caregiver proxy reports tend to overestimate symptom burdens in comparison with children's self‐reports. However, the results from Western countries may not be generalizable to Asian countries.MethodsThis paper is a secondary analysis of a validation study of the Japanese pediatric version of the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale including 88 dyads of children aged 7–12 years and 74 dyads of children aged 13–18 years and their caregivers. The study assessed the inter‐reporter differences of eight and 31 symptom burdens calculated as symptom scores in children aged 7–12 years and 13–18 years, respectively, and the association between inter‐reporter differences and the characteristics of children and caregivers.ResultsThe majority of children and caregivers scored equally at the dyadic level for almost all symptoms. However, 37.5% of symptoms in children aged 7–12 years and 10.0% of symptoms in children aged 13–18 years showed significant inter‐reporter differences, suggesting a general tendency of caregivers to underestimate their children's symptom burden. The caregiver's age was the characteristic most frequently associated with magnitude of inter‐reporter differences.ConclusionsCaregiver proxy reports may be a reliable source of PROs in Japanese children with cancer, as self‐reported and caregiver proxy‐reported symptom burdens were generally concordant. However, as some significant inter‐reporter differences were observed, an effort should be made within the medical community to evaluate the parent–child relationship to minimize inter‐reporter differences and achieve better symptom management.

中文翻译：

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日本癌症儿童症状负担的报告者间差异

背景最近关于西方国家儿童癌症报告者间差异和患者报告结果（PRO）的研究表明，与儿童的自我报告相比，护理人员代理报告往往高估症状负担。然而，西方国家的结果可能无法推广到亚洲国家。 方法本文是对日本儿科版纪念症状评估量表的验证研究的二次分析，该研究包括 88 组 7-12 岁儿童和 74 组 7-12 岁儿童。 13-18 岁的儿童及其照顾者。该研究评估了 7-12 岁和 13-18 岁儿童的 8 种和 31 种症状负担的报告者间差异，分别计算为症状评分，以及报告者间差异与儿童和照顾者特征之间的关联。大多数儿童和看护者在几乎所有症状的二元水平上得分相同。然而，7-12 岁儿童中 37.5% 的症状和 13-18 岁儿童中 10.0% 的症状显示出显着的报告者间差异，表明护理人员普遍倾向于低估孩子的症状负担。照顾者的年龄是与报告者间差异程度最常相关的特征。结论照顾者代理报告可能是日本癌症儿童 PRO 的可靠来源，因为自我报告和照顾者代理报告的症状负担通常是一致的。然而，由于观察到了一些显着的报告者间差异，医学界应努力评估亲子关系，以尽量减少报告者间的差异并实现更好的症状管理。