Trial Comparing Active Intervention At Diagnosis With Usual Care to Improve Psycho-social Care in AYAO

The Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (RSCL) is a self-report measure to assess the quality of life of cancer patients. It uses a 4-point Likert-type scales (not at all, a little, quite a bit, very much) to measure four domains, namely the physical symptom distress (23 items), psychological distress (7 items) activity level (8 items) overall valuation of life (1 item). The higher the score, the higher the level of burden or impairment. Standardized scores of scales can also be obtained when comparing different scales by transforming raw scores into scores on a 100-point scale using the formula [(raw scale score - minimum raw score) / (maximum - minimum score)] x 100 = transformed score.

Pediatrics Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) is a model used to measure health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in adolescents and young adults by generating a physical health summary score and psychosocial health summary score both ranging from 0-100, whereby a higher score suggests a better HRQOL. It encompasses physical, mental, and social health, the core dimensions of health defined by the World Health Organization, as well as is school functioning to generate pediatric HRQOL.

NCCN Distress Thermometer is a screening tool that measures distress on a 0 to 10 scale, whereby 0 indicates "No distress" and 10 indicates "Extreme distress". The Distress Thermometer also includes a problem checklist to identify problems that contribute to the score. These include practical problems, family problems, emotional problems, spiritual/religious concerns and physical problems that cancer patients may have.

The satisfaction questionnaire is adapted from a client satisfaction questionnaire incorporating questions about communication with healthcare providers. Patients rate their satisfaction of the info-education sessions - the way it is conducted and content and if their needs have been met on a Likert Scale. This ranges from 1 to 5: with 1 being strongly disagree and, 2 being disagree, 3 being neutral, 4 being agree and 5 being strongly agree. The total score of each individual item is summed up, with higher scores indicating a favourable response to the info-educational sessions.