Background Pain/distress during pediatric cancer treatments has substantial psychosocial consequences for children and families. We examined relationships between parents’ caregiving self-efficacy, parents’ affect in response to their children’s cancer-related treatment procedures, and parents’ symptoms of post-traumatic stress at follow-up. Methods Participants were 75 pediatric cancer patients and parents. On the day of each of three procedures (i.e., port-start, lumbar puncture, or bone marrow aspiration), parents rated their self-efficacy for six caregiving goals. Parents also self-reported their negative affect (i.e., state anxiety, negative mood, and distress) in response to each procedure. Three months after the last procedure, parents reported their level of post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Results Higher parent self-efficacy about keeping children calm before treatment and/or keeping children calm during the procedure was associated with lower state anxiety. Self-efficacy for keeping the child calm during procedures was significantly correlated with distress in parents at the time of procedures, and self-efficacy for keeping the child calm before procedures was significantly correlated with PTSS. All three negative affect measures significantly mediated the effects of parents’ caregiving self-efficacy for both goals on parents’ PTSS 3 months later. Conclusions Parents’ caregiving self-efficacy influences their immediate and longer-term distress reactions to their children’s treatment procedures. These findings provide a more nuanced understanding of how parents’ cognitions contribute to their ability to cope with their children’s treatment and suggest the benefit of an intervention that targets parents’ procedure-specific caregiver self-efficacy.
This version may be subject to change during the production process.
Over the last few decades, there has been an increase in the number of large federally funded transdisciplinary programs and initiatives. Scholars have identified a need to develop frameworks, methodologies, and tools to evaluate the effectiveness of these large collaborative initiatives, providing precise ways to understand and assess the operations, community and academic partner collaboration, scientific and community research dissemination, and cost-effectiveness. Unfortunately, there has been limited research on methodologies and frameworks that can be used to evaluate large initiatives. This study presents a framework for evaluating the Flint Center for Health Equity Solutions (FCHES), a National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)-funded Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center (TCC) for health disparities research. This report presents a summary of the FCHES evaluation framework and evaluation questions as well as findings from the Year-2 evaluation of the Center and lessons learned.
e20646 Background: Children are surviving cancer at increasing rates, but dealing with pediatric cancer creates substantial need for services among the families of patients. This study examined the fiscal/material/social needs of families with children in treatment, the relationship between the extent of these needs, and the psychosocial adjustment of primary caregivers. Methods: Participants included 105 pediatric cancer patients (ages 3-12), receiving outpatient cancer treatments at two large children’s hospitals, and their adult caregivers. About one year after treatment began, caregivers completed a questionnaire assessing their fiscal/material/social needs and whether the hospital offered assistance. Caregivers also completed several measures of psychosocial adjustment: satisfaction with life (Diener, 1985), perceived stress (Cohen, 1994), psychiatric symptoms (Derogatis, 1983), and post-traumatic stress symptoms (Weiss, 1996). This non-clinical study is still accruing patients, but it has reached a sample size that is large enough (90% of final sample) to justify data analysis. Results: The top 5 identified needs were: social work services, play activities during treatment, help with insurance to cover their child’s medical care, educational activities to help their child cope, and help obtaining cancer-related medical services. An analysis of the demographic correlates of these needs showed the total number of needs was significantly and negatively correlated with income, and Black families reported more needs than White families; there were no other significant demographic correlates. Total number of needs was significantly associated with caregivers’ psychosocial adjustment. Specifically, total number of needs was negatively correlated with life satisfaction, and positively associated with: caregiver perceived stress, depression, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Conclusions: Caregivers of pediatric cancer patients have substantial needs for basic services and the extent of these needs is associated with their psychosocial adjustment. Unmet needs may be a risk factor for patients and families. Programs that address these needs may benefit the adult caregivers and their children.
Objective: This study examines the preferences of patients with metastatic cancer regarding notification of imaging results, as well as distress surrounding the process.Methods: On imaging day, preferences for notification, expectations of results, health literacy, and social support were measured. After receiving results, patients reported on actual delivery methods. At both times, patients were screened for overall distress, anxiety, and depression. Results:The majority of patients preferred notification within 2 days and during a face-to-face visit with their oncologist. Although levels of distress, anxiety, and depression were low, patients with higher anxiety, depression, and social isolation had higher distress. There was no correlation between absolute distress levels and agreement between notification preferences and actual delivery methods. Receiving results from a preferred provider was associated with a decrease in distress from imaging day to follow-up. Face-to-face delivery of results was more important to people with lower health literacy.Conclusions: While distress regarding the receipt of results was low, it was higher for some groups of patients. Attending to the preferences of these subgroups may help to minimize distress. Practice implications:Receiving results from preferred personnel and diminishing patients' sense of social isolation might provide psychological benefit during the period surrounding imaging.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.