An increasing amount of children and adolescents are growing up with chronic diseases and living into adulthood. Chronic illness is defined as an illness that requires 6+ months of constant medical care, permanent lifestyle/dietary changes, and behavioral modifications. Examples of chronic illnesses include asthma, diabetes, sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, and inflammatory bowel disease. There are several hardships that children who are diagnosed with chronic illnesses must face such as frequent hospitalizations, painful/stressful medical procedures, medication regimens, missing school, and limitation of activities. The most frequently used intervention approaches are behavioral and cognitive-behavioral techniques for typical problems
…show more content…
The researchers of this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a psycho-educational group intervention, called Op Koers (O.K. program) for children with chronic illnesses.
A total of 116 patients (and their parents) who passed an initial interview participated in the present study. However, due to non-response errors only 109 participants data were included in the study. Age groups separated the participants into the following categories: ages 8-10 (OP), ages 10-12 (OS), and ages 12-18 (OW). Data was collected through multiple questionnaires, which were completed at three specific times; baseline (before intervention, T0), 0-6 weeks post- intervention (T1), and 6-8 months post-intervention (T2). The questionnaires Op Koers for children (QOK-c) and Op Koers for parents (QOK-p) were developed by the Emma Children’s Hospital AMC psychosocial department as a way to investigate if the goals of the OK program were met. The items on the questionnaire were focused on disease-related skills that were taught during the group intervention. The QOK-c requested the patient to rate to which …show more content…
T1 measured short-term intervention effects and found that most of the disease-related skills evaluated by the QOK-c were improved. T2 measured medium-term intervention effects and found that half a year post-intervention all disease-related skills improved. Parents perceived that after attending the intervention that their child used more disease-related skills than before, which confirmed the patients reported improvement. At T1, patients exhibited fewer behavioral-emotional problems (CBCL) than at baseline. A half-year after the group intervention, there was still a significant decrease in behavioral-emotional issues, as well as less withdrawal, anxiety, depression, and internalization of social and total problems. All of the results in combination indicate that there are beneficial effects of a standardized psycho-educational group intervention program for heterogeneous patient populations across broad age ranges over a period of time (half a year post-intervention).
Researchers suggest that future studies examine the effects of the interventions, since this was the first study to show benefits of this type of intervention. As with any study, especially a first results study, there were limitations with the research. For example, there was possible selection bias of participants. The patients who attended
The researchers of this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a psycho-educational group intervention, called Op Koers (O.K. program) for children with chronic illnesses.
A total of 116 patients (and their parents) who passed an initial interview participated in the present study. However, due to non-response errors only 109 participants data were included in the study. Age groups separated the participants into the following categories: ages 8-10 (OP), ages 10-12 (OS), and ages 12-18 (OW). Data was collected through multiple questionnaires, which were completed at three specific times; baseline (before intervention, T0), 0-6 weeks post- intervention (T1), and 6-8 months post-intervention (T2). The questionnaires Op Koers for children (QOK-c) and Op Koers for parents (QOK-p) were developed by the Emma Children’s Hospital AMC psychosocial department as a way to investigate if the goals of the OK program were met. The items on the questionnaire were focused on disease-related skills that were taught during the group intervention. The QOK-c requested the patient to rate to which …show more content…
T1 measured short-term intervention effects and found that most of the disease-related skills evaluated by the QOK-c were improved. T2 measured medium-term intervention effects and found that half a year post-intervention all disease-related skills improved. Parents perceived that after attending the intervention that their child used more disease-related skills than before, which confirmed the patients reported improvement. At T1, patients exhibited fewer behavioral-emotional problems (CBCL) than at baseline. A half-year after the group intervention, there was still a significant decrease in behavioral-emotional issues, as well as less withdrawal, anxiety, depression, and internalization of social and total problems. All of the results in combination indicate that there are beneficial effects of a standardized psycho-educational group intervention program for heterogeneous patient populations across broad age ranges over a period of time (half a year post-intervention).
Researchers suggest that future studies examine the effects of the interventions, since this was the first study to show benefits of this type of intervention. As with any study, especially a first results study, there were limitations with the research. For example, there was possible selection bias of participants. The patients who attended