Expectations and Needs of Patients With Cystic Fibrosis Becoming Parents - Exploratory Study

Life expectancy has improved significantly in cystic fibrosis in recent years. From paediatric disease, it has become a disease of the adult, with the emergence of new issues, such as becoming a parent. Parent patients still face the risk of complications and death while their child is still young. However, there is very little data in the literature on parenting in cystic fibrosis.

Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore and collect the perceptions, expectations and needs of CF patients and their spouses about parenting.

All patients with children, followed in 2 large adult CF centers, and their spouses will be invited to participate in a 6 to 10-person discussion group (focus group) led by a psychologist. He will ensure that all the participants express themselves and are encouraged to develop their points of view, their divergences and their common points about what constitutes to be a parent. The discussions will be recorded and transcribed.

Patients who cannot participate in groups (e.g. patients colonized with Burkholderia cepacia complex) but wish to be included in the study will benefit from an individual interview with the psychologist, also registered and transcribed. A thematic analysis will be carried out from the transcriptions of group contents. For individual interviews, phenomenological interpretative analysis (IPA) will be used. A synthesis of the two analyses will then be done.

The collected information should make it possible to develop and propose adapted medico-psycho-social interventions, if necessary, in connection with patient associations.