Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Department of Nursing, Umea University, Umea, Sweden.
Radiat Oncol. 2018 Jan 22;13(1):9. doi: 10.1186/s13014-017-0942-5.
Children can experience distress when undergoing radiotherapy as a reaction to being scared of and unfamiliar with the procedure. The aim was to evaluate children's experiences and responses towards an intervention for psychological preparation for radiotherapy.
A case control design with qualitative content analysis of semi-structured interviews and statistical analysis of anxiety ratings were used for evaluating a strategy for psychological preparation and distraction. Fifty-seven children aged 2 to 18 years and their parents participated - 30 children in the baseline group and 27 in the intervention group. Child interviews were performed and the child and their parents rated the child's anxiety.
The intervention was most appropriate for the younger children, who enjoyed the digital story, the stuffed animal and training with their parents. There were some technical problems and the digital story was not detailed enough to fit exactly with various cancer diagnoses. Children described suggestions for improvement of the intervention. The ratings of the child's anxiety during radiation treatment showed no differences between the baseline group and the intervention group.
The children of all the age groups experienced their interventions as positive. The strength of the intervention was that it encouraged interaction within the family and provided an opportunity for siblings and peers to take part in what the child was going through. Future research on children's experiences to interventions should be encouraged. The intervention and the technical solutions could improve by further development.
The study design was structured as an un-matched case-control study, baseline group vs. intervention group.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02993978 , Protocol Record 2012-113-31 M. Retrospectively registered - 21 November 2016.
儿童在接受放疗时会因害怕和不熟悉该程序而感到不适。本研究旨在评估儿童对放疗心理准备干预的体验和反应。
采用病例对照设计，对半结构式访谈进行定性内容分析，并对焦虑评分进行统计学分析，评估心理准备和分散注意力的策略。共有 57 名 2 至 18 岁的儿童及其家长参与，其中 30 名儿童为基线组，27 名儿童为干预组。对儿童进行访谈，并由儿童及其家长对儿童的焦虑程度进行评分。
该干预措施最适合年龄较小的儿童，他们喜欢数字故事、填充动物玩具和与父母一起进行训练。存在一些技术问题，数字故事不够详细，无法完全与各种癌症诊断相匹配。儿童描述了对干预措施的改进建议。在放射治疗过程中，儿童焦虑评分在基线组和干预组之间无差异。
所有年龄组的儿童都体验到了他们的干预措施是积极的。该干预措施的优势在于它鼓励家庭内部互动，并为兄弟姐妹和同龄人提供了参与孩子所经历的事情的机会。应鼓励对儿童干预措施体验的进一步研究。干预措施和技术解决方案可以通过进一步开发进行改进。
该研究设计为非匹配病例对照研究，基线组与干预组进行比较。试验注册号：ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02993978，方案记录 2012-113-31 M. 回顾性注册-2016 年 11 月 21 日。
