Rassam Rima Saad, Huijer Huda Abu-Saad, Noureddine Samar, Smith Ellen M Lavoie, Wolfe Joanne, Fares Souha, Abboud Miguel R
Hariri School of Nursing, American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon.
Department of Pediatric Medicine, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105, USA.
Ecancermedicalscience. 2024 Jul 1;18:1724. doi: 10.3332/ecancer.2024.1724. eCollection 2024.
Parents of children with cancer provide paediatric palliative care (PPC). However, the activities they perform remain underexplored, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where the care heavily relies on family involvement. The aim of this study is to identify parental PPC tasks and intentions to perform PPC tasks and to determine their associated factors. A quantitative cross-sectional descriptive design was used to recruit parents of children with cancer from three major paediatric oncology centres in Lebanon. Data were collected through structured interviews using an adapted questionnaire. The statistical analyses included descriptive, bivariate and regression analyses of PPC tasks and intentions. One hundred and five participants completed the study. On average, parents performed 22 PPC activities. The findings suggested statistically significant associations of the number of PPC tasks with the participants' marital status, number of people living with the child, the intentions to perform the tasks and the number of the child's symptoms in the previous week. Examining parents' tasks in PPC in LMICs, such as Lebanon, enhances knowledge of PPC practice in these regions and informs improvement strategies. These results promote PPC understanding, highlight factors influencing PPC delivery and provide a useful measure of PPC tasks performed by parents of children with cancer.
患有癌症儿童的父母提供儿科姑息治疗（PPC）。然而，他们所开展的活动仍未得到充分探索，尤其是在中低收入国家（LMICs），在这些国家，护理严重依赖家庭参与。本研究的目的是确定父母的PPC任务和执行PPC任务的意愿，并确定其相关因素。采用定量横断面描述性设计，从黎巴嫩的三个主要儿科肿瘤中心招募患有癌症儿童的父母。通过使用一份经过改编的问卷进行结构化访谈来收集数据。统计分析包括对PPC任务和意愿的描述性、双变量和回归分析。105名参与者完成了该研究。父母平均开展22项PPC活动。研究结果表明，PPC任务的数量与参与者的婚姻状况、与孩子同住的人数、执行任务的意愿以及孩子前一周的症状数量之间存在统计学上的显著关联。在黎巴嫩等中低收入国家研究父母在PPC中的任务，可增进对这些地区PPC实践的了解，并为改进策略提供依据。这些结果促进了对PPC的理解，突出了影响PPC提供的因素，并为患有癌症儿童的父母所执行的PPC任务提供了有用的衡量标准。
