Exploring the Subjective Experience of Nausea in Children with Cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An Exploration of the Subjective Experience of Nausea in Children with Cancer receiving Chemotherapy
IRAS ID
143950
Contact name
Faith Gibson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
London South Bank University
Research summary
Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting are two of the most distressing symptoms experienced by children with cancer. Whilst nausea and vomiting has been well researched, the subjective experience of chemotherapy-induced nausea alone has received less attention.
This study aims to find out more about nausea, and how children experience this symptom. In particular it will explore strategies children find most effective in managing nausea; although anti-sickness medications are routinely administered to prevent or control nausea, little is known about strategies children employ themselves to cope with this symptom. Additionally nausea is a difficult symptom for many children to describe. It cannot be measured objectively in the same way vomiting can be. This study will explore whether children can be helped to describe nausea through the use of a nausea rating scale, which has been validated for use in children with cancer.
Sixteen children with cancer aged between 6 and 12 years will be recruited to the study. They will be recruited when admitted to the inpatient unit of a United Kingdom cancer principal treatment centre. Children will be receiving, or have previously received, a course of chemotherapy that is moderately or highly likely to make them feel or be sick.
In order to elicit children’s experiences a number of age-appropriate methods will be used. A questionnaire has been developed to capture their general experiences of nausea. A nausea faces rating scale previously validated for use in children with cancer will be used in this study to explore its usefulness for clinical practice. Lastly, strategies that have and have not helped children manage nausea in the past will be presented to children in this study using a card-sort game. We hope that this study will result in better information for children (and their parents), using the cards to help in clinical practice.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/EE/0041
Date of REC Opinion
20 Jan 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion