Clinical trial · Interventional
Motivational Interviewing With Parents to Adopt and Maintain Physical Activity
Using Motivational Interviewing With Parents in Encouraging Their Children With Cancer to Adopt and Maintain Regular Physical Activity
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
Cancer-related fatigue is the most commonly reported symptom among children with cancer and its effect is long-lasting, remaining for years after treatment.Childhood cancer patients undergo chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy that impairs their normal body tissue and fitness. Consequently, cardiorespiratory function and muscle strength decrease, and fatigue is inevitable. More importantly, these complications do not disappear, but continue for months or even years after completion of therapy. Increasing concern has been placed on the benefits of regular physical activity (PA) among young cancer patients to improve cardiovascular fitness, ameliorate fatigue, and reduce some of the adverse effects of cancer and its treatment. Various studies have shown improvements in quality of life among young patients undergoing cancer treatment by performing regular physical activity. However, the literature review found that most young cancer patients maintain a lower level of PA than before their diagnosis. A recent study revealed that the current PA levels of Hong Kong young cancer patients were markedly reduced when compared with their pre-morbid situation. Moreover, they were significantly less active in performing physical exercise, and reported lower levels of quality of life than their healthy counterparts. These findings reveal a crucial obligation of health care professionals to advocate the significance of regular PA among young cancer patients. It is crucial for healthcare to correct misconceptions about PA among parents of children with cancer and advocate the principle of regular PA for their children, with the aim of enhancing their physical and psychological wellbeing and promoting their quality of life. Nevertheless, a large body of evidence has shown that education alone is insufficient or unlikely to change behavior, and healthcare professionals must therefore explore strategies that can actually be effective in helping parents realize the importance of regular physical activities for their children with cancer. Most importantly, healthcare professionals should motivate parents, as the primary caregivers, especially during children's cancer treatment, to take an important role in encouraging their children with cancer to adopt regular PA. This study aims at testing the effectiveness of using motivational interviewing with parents in encouraging their children with cancer to adopt and maintain regular physical activity.
Conditions
Conditions (1)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pediatric Cancer | Childhood Malignant Neoplasm | ALIAS | 0.90 |
Interventions
Interventions (2)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Motivational interviewing | Behavioral | — | UNRESOLVED |
| Placebo control | Behavioral | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (2)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Motivational interviewing
- description
- Other than usual medical care received by children, their parents in this group will receive three individual, face-to-face interventions on motivational interviewing by a trained registered nurse at baseline, 3-month and 6-month, with each session is about 60 minutes. All sessions of motivational interviewing will be scheduled based on the treatment schedule of the children and conducted in an interview room inside the pediatric oncology unit. A 25-30 minutes semi -structured interview will be conducted for process evaluation at 6-month.
- interventionNames
- Behavioral: Motivational interviewing
- type
- PLACEBO_COMPARATOR
- label
- Placebo control
- description
- Other than usual medical care received by children, parents in this group will receive an individual, face-to-face intervention which mimics the time and attention received by those in the experimental group. The intervention includes three sessions of educational talk to parents of children with cancer on healthy diet for cancer patients, adverse effects of cancer treatment, methods to minimize adverse effects. Subjects in both groups will receive a booklet developed by the advisory committee, which contains a various kind of physical activities specially designed for children with cancer.
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 9 Years
- Maximum age
- 16 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: (Children) * aged between 9 to 16 * diagnosed with cancer at some time in previous six months and currently admit for cancer treatments * do not participate in physical exercise and do not intend to start exercising in the next 6 months (pre-contemplation) * who are able to speak Cantonese and read Chinese. Exclusion Criteria:(Children) * children with evidence of recurrence or second malignancies * those with physical impairment or cognitive and learning problems identified from their medical records Inclusion Criteria: (Parents) * must be able to speak Cantonese and read Chinese * one parent (either father or mother) who should be the main carer for the child with cancer will be selected Exclusion Criteria: (Parents) * Parents with emotional or psychiatric disorders, and cognitive and learning problems identified from their medical records
References
Publications (0)
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