Information to Parents of Children With Cancer. An Exploratory Study
Information to Parents of Children With Cancer. An Exploratory Study
The aim of this study is to explore whether an intensified informational intervention built
 upon the Representational approach framework can reduce stress in parents of children with
 cancer.
BACKGROUND

 Parents of children with cancer have great information needs and report that these are not
 always met. Psychosocial suffering such as stress and anxiety is also common in this group.

 HYPOTHESIS

 An informational intervention emanating from the needs identified by parents is associated to
 decreased perceived stress, decreased depressive symptoms, decreased anxiety, increased
 satisfaction with information and decreased use of health care contacts in parents.

 INTERVENTION

 The intervention builds upon the Representational approach. This approach emanates from
 Leventhal's theories of illness representations and theories of conceptual change. Central
 qualities in the approach is that parents identify the area where information is needed
 themselves and that a thorough assessment of their current representation of that area is
 performed before information is given.

 Each participating parent receives three rounds that consist of two meetings. Each round
 starts with a meeting where the parent identifies an area where he/she needs more
 information. The nurse and the parent jointly survey the parent's representation of the area
 and discusses consequences of knowledge gaps or misunderstandings. Then, new information is
 introduced and benefits from the new information is discussed. After some days, a follow-up
 meeting takes place.

 DESIGN AND METHODS

 The intervention will be evaluated using a single-case design (A-B-A-B-A-B-A) with 10
 parents. All parents will receive the intervention, and repeated measures of the outcome
 variables both before and after will be used to assess the effect of the intervention. Data
 will be collected by web questionnaires with SMS- and e-mail reminders.

 In parallel, a process evaluation aiming at describing treatment fidelity, experiences of
 participation and impact of contextual factors on the results. For this aim, qualitative
 interviews with participants and audio recording of intervention sessions will be used.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  Being a parent of a child that

 1. is diagnosed with a first occurrence of a malignancy that is curatively treated

 2. was diagnosed two months ago

 -  Able to talk, read and write Swedish enough to be able to participate without an
 interpreter

 -  Have access to a computer and an internet connection.