Effectiveness of a family-management program for family having children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a quasi-experimental study.

PURPOSE

To examine the impact of a family-management program (FMP) on family management, family, and child quality of life (QOL) among parents of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

METHODS

Participants included 46 parents of children aged 2-5 years with ALL. Participants were recruited via a convenience sampling method at a tertiary hospital in Thailand. Twenty-three intervention participants received a 3-weekly FMP and routine care while the other 23 control participants received only routine cancer care. Data was collected in the hospital setting and/or via telephone follow-up calls. Study outcomes were evaluated at 3 time points (i.e., baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up) using the following: Family Management Measure, Beach Center Family Quality of Life Scale, and Quality of Life of Children with cancer module. Data were analyzed using two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA).

RESULTS

The findings revealed that family management and child QOL in the intervention group was higher than the control group at follow-up (p < .05), but not for family QOL. Within the intervention group, there was significant improvement in family management, family QOL and child QOL at post-intervention and follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS

The FMP was effective in fostering improved outcomes among enrolled parents that received the FMP compared to parents in the control group. Healthcare providers, especially nurses that work with parents of children with ALL, can easily offer the FMP to parents to help foster optimal family management, family QOL, and child QOL.