Behaviors and Mental Disorders

All Conditions

Quality of Life

Participants in this arm will have a summary of their family's psychosocial risk factors provided to the treatment team. This will occur twice: once shortly after diagnosis (within 2-4 weeks) and once approximately 6 months following diagnosis.

Participants in this arm will NOT have a summary of their family's psychosocial risk factors provided to the treatment team shortly after diagnosis. However, the risk factors will be distributed to the treatment team 6 months following diagnosis.

The treatment team will receive a psychosocial risk summary shortly following diagnosis based on parent report.

Summary of psychosocial risk factors

The treatment team will NOT receive a psychosocial risk summary shortly following diagnosis based on parent report.

Control

Maru Barrera, PhD

In Canada, approximately 1450 children are diagnosed with cancer annually. Diagnosis of childhood cancer and its aggressive treatment can have devastating psychosocial effects on the whole family (e.g. unpleasant feelings or emotions that impact your daily activities). It is not known whether health care providers who treat these children use and value psychosocial tools or how beneficial the use of these tools is for these families. This research team will test the benefits of using psychosocial screening on the quality of life of treated children, parents and siblings.

In Canada approximately 1450 children are diagnosed with cancer annually. Childhood cancer diagnosis and treatment can have devastating psychosocial effects on the family. Tools to screen for psychosocial risks (PSR) in pediatric oncology are rare. Our preliminary work adapted the Psychosocial Assessment Tool (PAT) for the Canadian population, PATrevised (PATrev), and developed the Psychosocial Care Checklist (PCCL). The PATrev is completed by parents of children with cancer, and yields a summary of the psychosocial needs of the patient, parents, and siblings. The PCCL assesses HCPs knowledge of family's psychosocial needs and services. Importantly, psychosocial screening is associated with reduced parental anxiety and improved child's quality of life (QOL). Demonstration of the tool's ability to maximize patient and family psychosocial outcomes is needed. Participants will be parents of children newly diagnosed with cancer, (patients and siblings (\> 8 years), if available). Design: RCT with concealed allocation to experimental group (EG) and control group (CG), with repeated measures (after diagnosis= T1, 6 months later=T2). The EG treating team will receive a summary of PATrev risk information based on parent report. No risk information will be provided in the CG. Parents in both groups will complete the PATrev, family environment questionnaire, self--report and proxy reported QoL, distress and mood measures for the patient and one sibling. Patients and siblings will self-report on QOL, distress and mood. Patient charts will be reviewed (T2) to determine treatment intensity and documented psychosocial services for each family.

Improving Quality of Life of Children With Cancer Through Psychosocial Screening

Improving Quality of Life of Children With Cancer Through Psychosocial Screening and Improved Communication in Health Care Providers

Measured by Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). A standardized measure of symptoms of anxiety and depression in adults. The HADS is suitable for all ages from 17+. The HADS consists of 14 questions, which are ranked according to a 4 point Likert type scale.

Measured by Caregiver Quality of Life Scale (CQOLC), 35 items using a five-point Likert-type scale to assess QoL in the family caregiver of cancer patients.

Measured by the Distress Thermometer, a standardized screening tool for measuring emotional distress in adults. Has been widely used as a screening tool of distress in adult cancer patients and caregivers.

Measured by Family Environment Scale (FES), a standardized measure of social climate within the family. The FES is a self-report measure which contains 27 true/false statements.

Measured by Pediatric Quality of Life (PedsQL 4.0) - Cancer Module, Standardized tool measures child/parent perceptions of a child's health-related quality of life specific to having cancer. Self report and parent proxy perception of health-related quality of life across 8 domains: pain, nausea, procedure, and treatment anxiety, worry, cognition, physical and commutation.

Measured by Pediatric Quality of Life (PedsQL 4.0) - Generic Module.The measure assesses perception for the child's general health across global, physical, emotional , social and academic domains. Parent/self report by healthy sibling

Standardized screening tool for measuring emotional distress in children. The distress thermometer adapted for pediatric population. Participants self-report on their distress on a line drawing representation of a thermometer. For this age group, distress is defined as worry, anxiety, sadness and fear on a visual analog scale from 0 (no distress) to 5 (moderate distress) to 10 (high distress). For patient with cancer and healthy sibling.

A 14-item self-report measure of emotional distress in children rated on a 4-point Likert scale (0 = not at all; 3 = always). This measure, based on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS;\[62\]), was designed to differentiate symptoms of emotional distress from physical illness in pediatric populations. It comprises two subscales assessing depression and anxiety, which when summated, provides a global index of emotional distress. For child with Cancer and healthy sibling.

Study title	NCT ID	Conditions	Interventions	Eligibility	Organization
Improving Quality of Life of Children With Cancer Through Psychosocial Screening	NCT02788604	Cancer	Summary of psyc... Control	8 Years - 100 Years	The Hospital for Sick Children
Improving Quality of Life of Children With Cancer Through Psychosocial Screening	NCT02788604	Cancer	Summary of psyc... Control	8 Years - 100 Years	The Hospital for Sick Children
Improving Quality of Life of Children With Cancer Through Psychosocial Screening	NCT02788604	Cancer	Summary of psyc... Control	8 Years - 100 Years	The Hospital for Sick Children
Improving Quality of Life of Children With Cancer Through Psychosocial Screening	NCT02788604	Cancer	Summary of psyc... Control	8 Years - 100 Years	The Hospital for Sick Children

Spots Global Cancer Trial Database for psychosocial screening, quality of life