Strategies used by children to cope with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer: an exploratory study

The Conference program's website is located at http://www.hkicc.org/download/16th%20HKICC%20Scientific%20Programme%20(2009).pdfFree Paper Session - Psychosocial Oncology: abstract no. A6

Healthy children, healthy communities: Nurses’ contributions

Session: Mental Health Across the Life CycleConference theme: Health, Equity and Sustainable DevelopmentBackground: The mental health problems in children are aggravating in Hong Kong and have turned out to be a major public health concern. Objectives: The aim of this paper was to shed light on the mental well-being of Hong Kong Chinese children living in public housing estate. Specifically, this paper discussed how nurses can contribute in enhancing the health and well-being of the children in our society. Underlying values and principles: Children are our greatest treasures, the most precious resource. Besides, Children hold the key of our future. Therefore, for a better & healthy community, and for the better of our future, we must ensure healthy growth and development of our children. Knowledge base/ Evidence base: There is some evidence that children who engaged in healthy lifestyle, such as having healthy eating and regular exercises, was found to have less depressive symptoms, better emotional and physical health than those who did not engage in healthy lifestyle. Context of intervention/project/work: An exploratory study was conducted in the largest public housing estate in Hong Kong. Using convenience sampling, 162 Chinese children aged 7 to 15 years, attended a Health Carnival organized by a community centre in the housing estate were invited to participate the study. Methods: Children were assessed for any presence of depressive symptoms by using the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Besides, childrenřs self-esteem was measured by using the Rosenbergřs Self-esteem Scale. Results and Conclusions: Results: Findings from this study reveal that more than 30% children were potentially at risk of depression or at least presented some depressive symptoms. The results also reveal that there was a medium negative correlation between self-esteem and depression scores. Conclusions: There is an imperative need for nurses to advance their practice and take a more assertive role in enhancing the health and well-being of children in the community. In addition, nurses should take one step forward to extend beyond traditional practice by building partnerships with schools and community to create a harmonious social environment and set up a community supporting network for children so that they can be able to lead a healthy life. Disclosure of Interest: None declaredpublished_or_final_versio

Understand How Children Cope with the Diagnosis and Treatment of Cancer: An Important Step to Implement Appropriate Psychological Interventions

Poster Presentation (Nurse's Session)Introduction: Understanding how children cope with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer is a crucial step toward designing appropriate psycho-educational interventions. This paper aimed to explore how Hong Kong Chinese children cope with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, an area of research that has been underrepresented in existing literature. Methods: A cross-sectional study was employed. Eightyeight Hong Kong Chinese children aged 9 to 16 years, admitted for treatment of cancer in 2 paediatric oncology units, were invited to participate in the study. A one-to-one short interview was conducted. Content analysis was used to analyze the interview data. The differences in coping strategies used between children's sex and age group were assessed by using chi-square test. Results: Findings from this study indicated that the most commonly reported coping strategy used by Hong Kong Chinese children was self-control (emotion-focused). This finding is incongruent with previous studies on Western children in which it was found that seeking social support (problem-focused) was the most commonly reported coping strategy. On the other hand, this study revealed that children used different coping strategies at different developmental stages, with younger children used less problem-focused and more emotionfocused coping strategies than older children. Discussion: The diagnosis and treatment of childhood cancer have been described as extremely stressful and threatening experiences in the life of a child. This study has addressed a gap in the literature by examining how Hong Kong Chinese children coped with and responded to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. It is anticipated that the information derived from this study would help nurses to shape and design appropriate psycho-educational interventions that can help ease the burden of cancer treatment and provide support for childhood cancer survivors to flight cancer and its subsequent adverse treatment effects at every step of their long and difficult journey.published_or_final_versio

Finding ways to solve or prevent aminoglycoside-induced ototoxicity?

published_or_final_versio

Smoking among Hong Kong Chinese women: behavior, attitudes and experience

published_or_final_versio

Effectiveness of an Adventure-Based Training Programme in Promoting the Psychological Well-Being of Primary School Children

Conference Theme: Empowerment for Healthy Settings - Healthy City and Community, Healthy School and University, Healthy Hospital and Healthy Workplace.Oral Session 19: 10-Health Impact Assessment, Research and Evaluation Methods&11. Dissemination of Research and Evidence & 4-Sustainable Development of Health Promotion &7-Professional and Technical Development&1-Social Determinants of Health&1-Social Determinants of Health&24. Health Promotion in the Workplace (English Session)Background: Mental health problems in children are becoming more serious worldwide nowadays and have turned out to be a major public health concern. There has been an increase in the use of adventure-based training for school children with behavioural problems with the aim of changing their feelings, patterns of thought and behaviour. Nevertheless, empirical evidence to determine the effectiveness of such training is lacking in the existing literature, and it is uncertain whether it can promote the psychological well-being of school children. Aim: To examine the effectiveness of an adventure-based training programme in promoting the psychological well-being of Hong Kong Chinese primary school children. Methods: A randomized controlled trial, two-group pre-test and repeated post-tests, betweensubjects design was employed in two primary schools in a large public housing estate. A total of 120 primary grades 5 and 6 pupils were recruited in 2011, of whom 56 were randomly assigned to the experimental group participating in the adventure-based training programme and 64 to the attention placebo control group. All participants were asked to respond to the Chinese version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children, the State Anxiety Scale for Children, the Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory .....published_or_final_versio

Effectiveness of a parental training programme in enhancing the parent-child relationship and reducing harsh parenting practices and parental stress in preparing children for their transition to primary school: a randomised controlled trial

published_or_final_versio

Play interventions to reduce anxiety and negative emotions in hospitalized children

published_or_final_versio

Helping cancer patients quit smoking by increasing their risk perception: A study protocol of a cluster randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Despite smoking cessation can largely improve cancer prognosis and quality of life, many patients continued smoking after the diagnosis of cancer. This study aims to test the effectiveness of a smoking cessation intervention using risk communication approach to help cancer patients quit smoking, and to improve their health related quality of life. METHODS: A cluster randomized controlled trial will be employed. Cancer patients who continued smoking after the diagnosis of cancer and have medical follow-up at the out-patient clinics of the five acute hospitals in Hong Kong will be invited to participate. Subjects in the experimental group will receive (1) health warnings of smoking based on a special designed leaflet; and (2) a patient-centred counseling from nurse counselors with emphasis on risk perceptions of smoking to cancer prognosis. Additionally, they will receive two more telephone counseling at 1-week and 1-month. Control group receive standard care and a generic self-help smoking cessation booklet. Outcomes measure include (a) self-reported and the biochemically validated quit rate, (b) patient's smoking reduction by at least 50 % compared to baseline, (c) quit attempt(s), (d) change in the intention to quit, (e) change in risk perceptions of smoking, and (f) change in health related quality of life. DISCUSSION: This study will make an important contribution to evidence-based practice by testing the effectiveness of a tailored smoking cessation intervention for cancer patients. The results will support the development of clinical practice guidelines to promote smoking cessation in cancer patients to improve their prognosis and quality of life.published_or_final_versio

"Quit to Win": a smoking cessation promotion and scientific research project with community participation

Poster Discussion 47. Benefits of Community Collaboration and Outreach: no. PD-1146-21Conference Theme: Tobacco and Non-Communicable DiseasesBACKGROUND: In Hong Kong, the daily smoking prevalence dropped to 10.7% in 2012. However, over 60% of the daily smokers had never tried and 53% had no intention to quit. Urgent actions and novel approaches are needed to promote smoking cessation. To actively offer smokers assistance to quit, the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health (COSH) partnered with Schools of Nursing and School of Public Health of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) to launch a smoking cessation contest – “Quit to Win” Contest in 2009, to raise public awareness on the harms of smoking and the benefits of quitting, and motivating smokers to quit. The contest was re-organized in 2010 and evolved to become “Quit to Win” Smoke-free …published_or_final_versio