학술논문

Providing Psychological Support to Parents of Childhood Cancer Survivors: ‘Cascade’ Intervention Trial Results and Lessons for the Future
Document Type
article
Source
Cancers, Vol 13, Iss 22, p 5597 (2021)
Subject
childhood cancer
parent
feasibility
acceptability
efficacy
psychological interventions
Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology. Including cancer and carcinogens
RC254-282
Language
English
ISSN
2072-6694
Abstract
We conducted a three-armed trial to assess Cascade, a four-module group videoconferencing cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) intervention for parents of childhood cancer survivors currently aged PedsQL-Family Impact/EQ-5D-5L) six months post-intervention. Parents also reported their anxiety/depression, parenting self-agency, fear of recurrence, health service and psychotropic medication use, engagement in productive activities, confidence to use, and actual use of, CBT skills, and their child’s quality of life. Seventy-six parents opted in; 56 commenced the trial. Cascade achieved good parent engagement and most Cascade parents were satisfied and reported benefits. Some parents expressed concerns about the time burden and the group format. Most outcomes did not differ across trial arms. Cascade parents felt more confident to use more CBT skills than peer-support and waitlisted parents, but this did not lead to more use of CBT. Cascade parents reported lower psychosocial health scores for their child than waitlisted parents. Cascade parents’ health service use, psychotropic medication use, and days engaged in productive activities did not improve, despite some improvements in waitlisted parents. Our trial was difficult to implement, but participants were largely satisfied. Cascade did not improve most outcomes, possibly because many parents were functioning well pre-enrolment. We used these findings to improve Cascade and will trial the new version in future.