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Enhancing Adjustment to Parental Cancer: Short-term Counselling for Families

Not Applicable
Completed
Conditions
Cancer
Psychological Adjustment
Interventions
Behavioral: Short-term Counselling for Families
Registration Number
NCT03097458
Lead Sponsor
University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland
Brief Summary

A parental cancer diagnosis challenges the family's stability and the parent-child relationship. It may impact the children's well-being, so that about one third of them develop clinically relevant levels of psychological distress. Psycho-oncological family-based counselling programs have been shown to elevate children's and parents' well-being. However, there is still a dearth of familial health services in Switzerland, which has also been recognized by the Swiss National Cancer Program (2011-2017).

This study aims to implement and evaluate a short-term family counselling intervention at the Cancer Center of the University Hospital Basel. The primary objective of the study is the enhancement of adjustment to the parental cancer diagnosis. The study seeks secondary to determine the feasibility of the short-term counselling Intervention.

Detailed Description

This study ist designed as a randomized controlled wait-list Intervention study, which aims to implement and evaluate a short-term family counselling intervention at the Cancer Center of the University Hospital Basel. The study will be divided into two stages: Stage 1 serves as the preparatory work phase, where the intervention manual will be developed as well as the implementation strategy into the hospital. In stage 2 the intervention will be evaluated, with an interim analysis to test for feasibility. The primary objective of the study is the enhancement of adjustment (family, parents and children) to the parental cancer diagnosis. The study seeks secondary to determine the feasibility of the short-term counselling intervention in the Swiss medical setting and to identify predictors for families with continuing psychosocial adjustment problems.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
11
Inclusion Criteria
  • Informed Consent as documented by signature
  • Diagnosis of any kind of cancer, inclusive relapse, within the last year with an expected survival of at least 8 months
  • Married, cohabiting or single parent
  • At least one child between 1-5 - 18 years
  • German speaking
Exclusion Criteria
  • The diagnosis is more than 1 year ago
  • Diagnosed patients (parent) not living with their children
  • Diagnosed patients without custody of their children

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
CounsellingShort-term Counselling for Familiesshort-term counselling for families
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Change of children's quality of life on the health-related quality of life questionnaire (KINDL)6 weeks (change between baseline and week 6)

Enhancement of children's quality of life from T1 (baseline) to T2 (6 weeks) compared to the wait-list control group.

Change of children's behavioral-emotional functioning on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)6 weeks (change between baseline and week 6)

Enhancement of children's behavioral-emotional functioning from T1 (baseline) to T2 (6 weeks) compared to the wait-list control group.

Change of parent's mental health on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)6 weeks (change between baseline and week 6)

Enhancement of parent's mental health from T1 (baseline) to T2 (6 weeks) compared to the wait-list control group.

Change of family functioning on the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale (FACES IV)6 weeks (change between baseline and week 6)

Enhancement of family functioning from T1 (baseline) to T2 (6 weeks) compared to the wait-list control group.

Change of relationship quality on the relationship questionnaire (Partnerschaftsfragebogen PFB)6 weeks (change between baseline and week 6)

Enhancement of relationship quality from T1 (baseline) to T2 (6 weeks) compared to the wait-list control group.

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Medical history characteristics (i.e. cancer diagnosis, cancer treatment) of the participants willing to participate in the counselling with the medical history questionnaireThrough study completion, an average of 2 years

Collecting medical history of the population willing to participate with the medical history questionnaire

Number of participants willing to participate in the counsellingThrough study completion, an average of 2 years

Secondary outcome will be to determine whether a short-term counselling intervention is feasible in the Swiss medical setting by collecting the number of participants willing to participate.

Sociodemographic characteristics (i.e. age, gender, education) of the participants willing to participate in the counselling with the sociodemographic questionnaireThrough study completion, an average of 2 years

Collecting sociodemographic characteristics of the population willing to participate with the sociodemographic questionnaire

Dropout rate during the recruitment and intervention procedureThrough study completion, an average of 2 years

Secondary outcome will be to determine whether a short-term counselling intervention is feasible in the Swiss medical setting by collecting dropout rate during the recruitment and intervention procedure.

Client satisfaction on the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8)Measures assessed after 6 weeks

German Version of the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire: Fragebogen zur Messung der Patientenzufriedenheit (ZUF-8) will be used to measure client's intervention satisfaction.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University Hospital Basel

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Basel, Switzerland

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