Informing Parents as Caregivers With a Symptom Assessment App Developed for Children With Cancer

Abstract

Background: Mobile health technologies can assist children to communicate their symptom experiences in a developmentally appropriate format. However, few investigations have examined how mHealth resources may also assist parents in their caregiver role. The purpose of this study was to explore how a symptom assessment app designed for school-age children with cancer could further inform parents as caregivers. Methods: Nineteen parents (18 mothers; median 35 years old, range 26–48 years) of children (6–12 years of age) receiving cancer treatment participated in the feasibility/acceptability trial of a game-based symptom assessment app. Acceptability interviews with parents were completed after each child’s trial with the app. We completed a secondary analysis of the parent interviews using thematic analysis to examine how the app could support parents in their caregiving role. Results: Parents perceived the app to (1) elicit the child’s voice about his/her symptom experience; (2) provide a supportive and safe environment for the child to report symptoms; and (3) create an opportunity to facilitate communication between the child, parent, and clinical team. Parents expressed a willingness for their child to represent his/her experience with the app so that they could make informed decisions regarding symptom care. Discussion: Perceived benefits of the app extended to parents as they described developing further insight into their child’s cancer experience. The knowledge gained allowed parents the potential to enhance symptom communication and supportive care strategies. Future research should further evaluate how mHealth tools facilitate shared symptom management between children receiving treatment for cancer and their caregivers.

Investigating the Use of Serious Games for Cancer Control among Children and Adolescents: Scoping Review (Preprint)

“…Caregivers [60][61][62][63]66,79,81,82,92,95,97,99,[101][102][103] 0 (0) 15 (27) Healthy people [7,34,66,70,75,85,91,[106][107][108][109][110][111] 8 (100) 5 ( 9)…”

“…Serious game preference [7,55,56,62,63,67,68,70,75,79,[84][85][86]90,[92][93][94][95][96][97][98][101][102][103][104]108,110,111] 4 (50) 24 (44) Treatment adherence [69,95,101] 0 (0) 3 ( 6) Cancer education [34,55,56,80,95,101,105,106,109] 3 (38) 6 (11) Healthy behavior promotion [42,54,57,60,65,74,…”

“…The majority of the included studies were published between 2019 and 2023. To be specific, 5 out of 8 (63%) cancer prevention serious game articles[7,106,[109][110][111] and 35 out of 55 (64%) cancer care serious game articles[35,42,54,58,59,[61][62][63]65,66,71,72,74,75,[78][79][80][81][82]85,[91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105] were published between 2019 and 2023. The studies were conducted in Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania, with the majority of the studies being conducted in Europe and North America.…”

“…Of the 8 cancer prevention serious game articles, 3 (38%)[107,109,110] and 4 (50%)[7,34,106,108] studies were conducted in Europe and North America, respectively. Of the 55 cancer care serious game articles, 24 (44%)[35,58,[61][62][63][65][66][67]70,74,75,[81][82][83][85][86][87]92,93,[97][98][99][100]103] and 17 (31%)[52,[54][55][56][57]59,60,63,68,69,73,78,79,84,89,90,102] studies were conducted in Europe and North America, respectively. Of the 8 cancer prevention serious game studies, 3 (38%) were quantitative[34,…”

“…As mentioned in our inclusion criteria, studies examining adult populations were included if these also examined and isolated data for our population of interest (ie, children and/or adolescents), or if adults were interviewed about children or adolescents. Of our included studies, 25 of the 55 (45%) cancer care articles[52,55,56,[60][61][62][66][67][68][69][79][80][81][82]84,85,[92][93][94][95]97,99,101,102,104] and 2 of the 8 (25%) cancer prevention articles[34,109] included adults as well as adolescents and/or children. Two studies only included adults (being studies where parents were interviewed about their children, but where the children did not participate in the study, themselves), with both of these studies being cancer care articles[63,103].…”