Symptom Clusters That Included Gastrointestinal Symptoms Among Children Receiving Cancer Treatments: A Scoping Review.

Composition and measurement of the gastrointestinal (GI) symptom cluster (SC) has been inconsistent; therefore, a gap exists in understanding of the GI SC. The purpose of this study was to synthesize findings from prior studies to better understand the GI SC and accompanying non-GI symptoms in children receiving cancer treatment. PubMed®, Embase®, CINAHL®, Scopus®, and PsycINFO® databases were searched through February 2022. Of 661 articles identified, 8 met inclusion criteria. A standardized investigator-developed form was used to extract data from eligible studies, including study and sample characteristics, analytic procedure, SCs that included GI symptoms, and influencing factors. The 12 most frequently reported GI and accompanying non-GI symptoms were identified across 20 SCs. Phi correlation coefficients were calculated as indicators of strength of association between each pair of co-occurring symptoms within an SC. Future studies should develop and test tools to comprehensively assess GI and accompanying non-GI symptoms and interventions that target shared underlying mechanisms.