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PSYKISK-Psykisk helse

Supporting Patient Communication and Coping with Illness in Childhood Cancer

Tildelt: kr 3,7 mill.

Prosjektnummer:

175389

Søknadstype:

Prosjektperiode:

2006 - 2011

Midlene er mottatt fra:

Geografi:

Children with cancer experience complex physical, psychosocial, and behavioural symptoms/problems due to the illness treatment, uncertain diagnosis, and medical procedures. To help children cope with their problems and prevent psychological distress, we d eveloped the support system, Peds-CHOICE, on a touch-pad computer to help children with cancer report their symptoms/problems in an age-adjusted manner. We propose a repeated measures quasi-experimental study with 70 children, age 7-12, undergoing cancer treatment to test the following hypotheses: (1) children and their parents will experience less anxiety and be more satisfied with their out-patient visit when children use Peds-CHOICE to report their symptoms/problems to clinicians; (2) there will be gre ater congruence between children?s reported symptoms/problems and those addressed by their clinicians in outpatient visits as evidenced in documented patient care. To better understand the mechanisms by which these effects may occur, we will also explore the following: Differences between control and experimental groups in patient-provider communication in terms of instrumental and affective behaviour, participation, initiative and person addressed; the relationships among outcomes of patient-provider com munication, congruence between patients? reported symptoms and those addressed by their clinicians and children?s and parents? anxiety and satisfaction; and how these relationships differ between treatment and control conditions. Finally, we will investig ate time requirements, ease of use and usefulness of Peds-CHOICE by children and clinicians. For analyses we will use inferential statistics, and for the video-taped consultation sessions qualitative analyses. This study will contribute to improving patie nt-centred care for a particularly vulnerable population, and to a better understanding of the triadic communication and interactions among child-parent and clinician.

Budsjettformål:

PSYKISK-Psykisk helse