Recognizing and Treating Psychosocial Stress Among Children With Complex Heart Problems

This research project has two goals. The first goal is to find one or more questionnaires that can accurately identify children who are experiencing high levels of stress or emotional health issues during a regular clinic visit. The second goal is to find out whether children who are experiencing stress or emotional health problems are able to attend a day camp programme and complete activities at home that are designed to help them cope better with stress. We also want to find out if the day camp and home activities are helpful.

Study Overview

• Status: Withdrawn
• Conditions: Psychosocial Stress
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Day Camp

Detailed Description

This research will investigate the psychological stress experienced by children who have had surgery for a complex heart problem. Measures of quality of life among children with heart problems indicate that those 8 to 12 years of age have lower quality of life scores than younger or older children.

Children who survive a critical illness requiring a multi-day stay in a pediatric intensive care unit are at risk for a variety of psychiatric morbidities. Depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder occur in 7% to 28% of patients.

A systematic review of psychological adjustment among children with heart problems indicates that parent reports (but not child self-reports) are useful in detecting problems with psychological adjustment. While parent reports tend to identify increased social and behaviour problems, child self-reports indicate more frequent symptoms of depression compared to healthy peers.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Phase: Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Ontario
    • Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 1X8
      • The Hospital for Sick Children

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 6 years to 12 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• children who have had surgery for a complex heart problem
• children with heart problems requiring on-going medical care
• age 6 to 12 years

Exclusion Criteria:

• the child has had an intervention (catheterization or surgery) within the previous 6 months,
• the child has an identified cognitive or emotional health disability,
• the child or parents do not speak English sufficiently well to respond to the screening instruments, or
• the child's clinic visit is for an acute illness or change in health status.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Subjects; Children identified during the screening phase of the project as having elevated, but not clinically defined, levels of psychosocial stress will be invited to participate in the intervention phase of this research if they are between 8 and 11 years of age. Screening will identify 6 girls and 6 boys eligible and willing to participate in the intervention phase of the project.	Behavioral: Day Camp; The intervention will be delivered using a day camp structure, on a weekend or during school break in July 2011. Separate interventions will be offered for boys and girls. Each intervention will include two full days (0900 to 1600) of group activities lead by the researchers. Details of the "camp" activities will be developed by the researchers, based on the types of psychosocial stress identified during the screening phase of the project.
No Intervention: Control; All families that were screened during the screening phase of this study will complete the final screening instrument assessment, whether or not the child participated in the day camp intervention. The control group will be comprised of those families that did not participate in the intervention.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Change in psychosocial stress scores resulting from the intervention	Baseline and end of study (at about month 10 -11)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The Hospital for Sick Children
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Brian McCrindle, MD, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto Canada

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: January 1, 2011
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 1, 2011
• Study Completion (Actual): November 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 2, 2013
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 2, 2013
• First Posted (Estimate): December 6, 2013

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): December 6, 2013
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 2, 2013
• Last Verified: December 1, 2013

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: pediatrics; cardiac surgery; stress
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1000020209