Randomized Clinical Trial of a Self-care and Communication Intervention for Parents of Adolescent/Young Adults Undergoing High-Risk Cancer Treatment: A Report From the Children's Oncology Group.
Joan E Haase, Kristin Stegenga, Sheri L Robb and 18 others
PMID 34817419WHAT IT FOUND
The nurse-delivered parent self-care and communication intervention did not significantly improve parent distress, family environment, or quality of life versus attention control.
A parenting-confidence measure favoured intervention, but both groups improved.
Key findings
01The parent intervention did not significantly improve the primary parent outcomes of distress, family environment, or quality of life at the 14-day or 90-day follow-ups.
02A secondary parenting-confidence outcome significantly favoured the intervention at T2, with P = .04 and Cohen's d = 0.53.
03AYAs did not differ significantly between parent groups for family environment, positive coping, hope-derived meaning, or resilience.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The trial did not reach its planned parent sample size, so it may have been underpowered to detect real differences. Recruiting parents and AYAs together required both to agree, which may have selected families with better communication or more availability. The parent intervention was brief, and parents said they lacked time to practise the skills. All AYAs received the same therapeutic music-video intervention, so parent outcomes may include indirect effects of that shared treatment and cannot be separated from the parent intervention alone. The positive parenting-confidence finding used a study-developed scale whose validity and reliability were not fully established. Some baseline characteristics differed between groups, including parent sex, parent race, AYA sex, and AYA school attendance. The AYA age range was narrower than the more recent definition used in the United States.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the nurse-delivered parent intervention reduces parent distress, improves family environment, or raises quality of life. Those primary outcomes showed no significant difference versus attention control. The positive parenting-confidence result was secondary and relied on a scale whose validity and reliability were not fully established.