Effectiveness of a Brief Psychosocial Intervention on Quality of Life of Primary Caregivers of Iranian Children With Cancer: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Cancer in children has a great impact on primary caregiver quality of life (QOL). Objective: This study examined the effectiveness of a brief psychosocial intervention (BPI) on QOL of Primary Caregivers of Children with Cancer (PCCCs). Methods: Sixty-five PCCCs participated in a randomized controlled trial in Mahak Hospital and Rehabilitation Complex in Tehran, Iran. A 5-week long BPI (which comprised of counseling sessions and telephone follow-up) was delivered to the intervention group in addition to usual service, while the control group was provided with usual service. Data were collected using the Caregiver Quality of Life Index-Cancer-Persian version (CQOLC-P) prior to intervention, post-intervention, and at follow-up (i.e. 30 days after the intervention). Repeated measures analysis of variance analysis (ANOVA) was used to evaluate outcomes. Results: Majority of the participants were mothers (95%), between ages of 24-47 years (95%) with children between ages of 2-12 years. Most child cancer diagnoses were for brain tumors (n = 31) and blood cancers (n = 17). Significant improvement was found within the intervention group on QOL (p < 0.001) including improvements on subscale measures of mental/emotional burden (p < 0.001), disruption (p < 0.001), and positive adaptation (p < 0.001), compared with the control group over time. There was no difference between the intervention and control groups on the financial subscale measure after intervention (p > 0.05). Conclusion: BPI was an effective strategy to improve the quality of life of PCCCs. Similar interventions can be planned by practitioners to reduce the burden of childhood cancer on PCCCs. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.