Effectiveness of Islamic Spiritual Care Education for Parents on Quality of Life and Chronic Pain of Children with Cancer

Abstract

Aims: Studies showed that spiritual care is a good mechanism of coping for parents with children suffering from cancer. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of parents’ Islamic spiritual care on pediatric quality of life and chronic pain in children with cancer. Instrument and Methods: A semi-experimental study was performed at Mahak Hospital in Tehran, Iran. Forty-five child-parent pairs were assigned into the experiments (n = 25) and control groups (n = 20). The parents of children with cancer in the intervention group received eight sessions of Islamic spiritual care of the child with cancer lasting between 80–90 minutes. The control group received only routine standard care. All parents completed the Spirituality & Spiritual Sare Rating Scale (SSRS) and all children with cancer completed the pediatric quality of life inventory and Oucherpain scale before and after the interventions. The data was analyzed in SPSS-21. Findings: There was significant difference between attitudes of parents toward spirituality and spiritual care between two groups (F=10.02; P<0.01; η2=0.48). The mean of ‘Spirituality’ in the experimental group was 3.73 at pretest, 4.11 post-test and 4.4three months after the sessions. Also, the results showed that spiritual care training of parents improved the pediatric quality of life. The mean children quality of life in experimental group was 3.39 at pretest, 4.16 post-test and 4.22 three months later (F=12.46; P<0.01; η2=0.41) and hence a decreased pain perception in children with cancer during follow-up. The mean of pain perceived among children with cancer was 8.96 at per-test, 7.42 posttest and 4.89 at follow up. (F=15.33; P<0.01; η2=0.33). Conclusions: The results showed that spiritual care training of parents increases their attitude toward spiritual care for their children. In this regard, the impact of current training increases pediatric quality of life and reduces the intensity of pain among children with cancer.