Clinical trial · Interventional
Narrative-based Card Game in Improving Spiritual Well-being Among Chinese Childhood Cancer Patients
Narrative-based Card Game (NCG) in Improving Spiritual Well-being, Enhancing Hope, Decreasing Psychological Symptoms, and Promoting Quality of Life Among Chinese Childhood Cancer Patients: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
- 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 as a life-threatening disease can trigger children's unique spiritual needs. Unmet spiritual needs can cause low level of spiritual well-being, which is a central component for the overall quality of life (QoL) of cancer patients and was inversely associated with depressive symptoms, anxiety and a low level of hope. However, there has been no intervention focused on improving spiritual well-being among childhood cancer patients. Evidence from adult cancer patients suggests that narrative intervention can effectively address spiritual needs and improve spiritual well-being, while playing card game can combine an emotionally sensitive topic with an enjoyable activity, providing insight into the development of narrative-based card games for childhood cancer patients. The first objective of this pilot study is to assess the feasibility of narrative-based card game among Chinese childhood cancer patients. The second objective is to evaluate the preliminary effects of narrative-based card game intervention on spiritual well-being, hope, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and QoL of childhood cancer patients at postintervention and at 1-, and 3-month follow-up postintervention.
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 (1)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Narrative-based card game | Behavioral | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (2)
- type
- ACTIVE_COMPARATOR
- label
- Narrative-based card game
- interventionNames
- Behavioral: Narrative-based card game
- type
- NO_INTERVENTION
- label
- PUKE card game
Primary outcomes (9)
- measure
- The length of recruitment
- timeFrame
- baseline
- description
- The time used for subject recruitment
- measure
- Eligibility rate
- timeFrame
- baseline
- description
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 12 Years
- Maximum age
- 17 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: (1) age 12-17 old (2) diagnosed with any type of cancer and currently undergoing active treatment (3) knowing about their cancer diagnosis, and (4) able to communicate with Chinese. \- Exclusion Criteria: (1) those with identified cognitive and/or behavioural problems which affected their verbal communication; (2) those with advanced cancer, including nonresponsive to treatment, stage IV solid tumor that had recurred or progressed as defined, or physician estimated poor prognosis of \<60%. \-
References
Publications (1)
- DERIVEDLiu Q, Ho KY, Lam KKW, Wong FKY, Lam W, Cheng F, Wei H, Chan K, Ting M, Yang FN, Xiao P, Luo T, Wang HX, Yorke J. Preliminary effectiveness and feasibility of an integrated hope techniques and narrative-based card game intervention for pediatric cancer patients in China: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Med. 2025 Jul 31;23(1):449. doi: 10.1186/s12916-025-04287-5. PMID 40745312