Clinical field testing of an enhanced-activity intervention in hospitalized children with cancer. Impact of Effective Nursing Interventions to the Fatigue Syndrome in Children Who Receive Chemotherapy
This prospect i ve , two-site , r and omized , controlled pilot study assessed the feasibility of an enhanced physical activity ( EPA ) intervention in hospitalized children and adolescents receiving treatment for a solid tumor or for acute myeloid leukemia ( AML ) , and assessed different statistical techniques to detect the intervention 's sleep and fatigue outcomes .  Twenty-nine patients ( 25 with a solid tumor and 4 with AML ) participated . Data were collected from actigraph ; patient , parent , and staff nurse reports of patient fatigue ; parent sleep diaries ; and patient charts . The intervention was successfully implemented 85.4 % of the scheduled times . We used two different statistical methods to analyze the longitudinal data . Using an ANOVA model , sleep was significantly more efficient in the experimental arm than in the control arm when daily differences from baseline sleep efficiency values were averaged and compared ( F=4.17 , P=0.053 ) . However , in a mixed model ( repeated measures ) analysis , sleep duration ( F=0.54 , P=0.47 ) and sleep efficiency ( F=0.04 , P=0.85 ) were not seen to differ between study arms . We conclude that an inpatient intervention of EPA can be delivered to children and adolescents receiving chemotherapy . Our findings identify design and statistical considerations for a future effectiveness study of the EPA intervention in hospitalized pediatric oncology patients This experimental , r and omized controlled study was conducted for children with cancer who are 7 to 12 years of age and receiving chemotherapy treatment to detect the impact of appropriate nursing interventions on decreasing the fatigue syndrome . The research sample is composed of a total of 60 children with cancer , with 30 children being included in the experimental group and 30 children included in the control group with their mothers . In the experimental group , after the 7th to 10th day of the chemotherapy treatment , throughout a week , the research er conducted the effective nursing interventions every day for 45 to 60 minutes . In the control group , routine nursing interventions were carried out . The experimental and control group children 's mean scores for the Fatigue Scale-Child and those of mothers for Fatigue Scale-Parent were compared . A statistically significant difference was found between the Fatigue Scale-Child and Fatigue Scale-Parent mean scores of the experimental and the control group children ( P < .00 ) . These results suggest that fatigue of children with cancer can be reduced by implementing appropriate nursing interventions
BACKGROUND Fatigue is one of the most distressing and prevalent symptoms reported by pediatric oncology patients .
With the increase in cancer survival rates , medical teams have focused on methods that control cancer-related fatigue in children during the disease and its treatment in order to increase the quality of life for these patients .
AIM The objective of this systematic review was to synthesize the best available evidence concerning the effectiveness of nonpharmacological interventions for fatigue in children and adolescents with cancer .