Family impact of a childhood cancer diagnosis during the pandemic
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Lived experience of childhood cancer diagnosis during the COVID-19 pandemic: parents’ perceptions of the impact on the family
IRAS ID
298214
Contact name
Shivani Sharma
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Hertfordshire
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 1 days
Research summary
This study will explore the experiences of parents who had a child diagnosed with cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their perception on how this impacted their family. The pandemic has created additional challenges and uncertainty for these families. For example, hospital restrictions mean that only one parent can visit their child, parents have been unable to meet with other parents for peer support, and face-to-face social support from friends and families is limited due to social distancing measures.
There has been some research on the psychological and social burden of the pandemic on parents of children with cancer through questionnaire surveys (e.g. Darlington et al., 2020). However, self-reported questionnaires are limited in their ability to explore the depth of meaning a family ascribes to their experience. In addition, research in this area typically only includes one family member, usually mothers (e.g. Darlington et al. 2000), limiting the breadth of representation of family life.
Six to eight sets of parents will be recruited from Addenbrooke’s Hospital to take part in individual semi-structured interviews (approximately 1 hour). Participants will be invited to talk about their experience of having a child diagnosed with cancer during the pandemic, and their perceptions on the impact on their family. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the interview will take place over remote video technology, as per security and data protection measures provided by the NHS Trust, or the telephone. The interviews will then be analysed in depth, and themes will be developed representing the shared meanings of these experiences.
This study is supported by the University of Hertfordshire in collaboration with Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. It is part of a Doctoral qualification, meaning that there are time limits to the project; completion is expected by July 2022, and the research will then be submitted for publication to peer-reviewed journals.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/EM/0164
Date of REC Opinion
28 Jul 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion