| Our research focused on the frequency of childhood malignant diseases in Hungary (incidence, prevalence), and with the outcome effectiveness of special summer camps aiming at their psychosocial rehabilitation. The incidence of childhood malignant diseases in Hungary is 131-140 per million person-years, and its average annual increase is 1,1%; the relative frequencies are: leukaemia 27,8%, central nervous system tumours 26,6%, lymphomas 11,3%, sympathetic nervous system tumours 10,0% (1993-2002; n=2436). The 5-year overall survival rate is 65,2% (1988-1997; n=2146). The incidence of leukaemias in Hungary is 33,2--39,4 per million person-years, the average annual increase is 0,71% (1973-2002; n=2204). The number of children in Hungary living with malignant diseases and are foremost in need of psychosocial rehabilitation can be estimated around one thousand. As an effect of participation in a rehabilitation camp, positive psychosocial changes were observed. Self-esteem increased significantly by the end of the camp, and in the case of those whose initial self-esteem was low, a long-term increase was observed. The perceived self-efficacy increased significantly not only by the end of camp, but at the two-month follow up as well, in the subgroup of campers with initial low self-efficacy. The Hungarian data of epidemiology correlates well with other European data. Regarding the frequency of childhood malignant diseases in Hungary, our research is the first comprehensive analysis of an extensive period of time. The novelties of our results regarding the outcome effectiveness of rehabilitation camping programmes are that they demonstrate the long-term positive effect on self-esteem and that they promote a positive effect on self-efficacy. |
