Assessment of family function among parents of children with cancer

Family functioning is one of the important factors of family's quality of life and mental health. The disease of a child influences family life style as well as the function of whole family. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the family functioning among parents of children with cancer. This descriptive study was performed on 62 pair of parents (mother and father) of children with cancer in three educational hospitals belonging to Tehran Universities of Medical Sciences in Spring of 2014. Data were collected in one step from parents (with outpatient and inpatient children) by the demographic and clinical information sheet and the validated Persian version of the McMaster family assessment device (FAD). Internal consistency (Alfa Cronbach) and Test-Retest were done. Data analyses were done by SPSS version 20 with t-student independent test, the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient and Linear Regression analysis. Mothers and fathers mean age was 31.6 ± 5.9 and 36.6 ± 5.3, respectively. Most of them had lower than 300 US$ income in a month (54.1%). Most children suffered from leukemia (75.8%).Almost half of the families had unhealthy function (46%).The prevalent family dysfunctions were in problem solving (60.5%) and affective involvement (54.8%) dimensions. There were no differences between the mothers and fathers for family function mean scores (p> 0.05). Children age (p < 0.05) and fathers’ education (p = 0.01) were significant variables in correlation with family functioning (R2 = 0.13). Family functioning in parents of children with cancer should be considered as one of the priorities of health to give support and effective planning for family-centered nursing care, especially in problem solving and affective involvement dimensions. More studies in much expended age group, other chronic diseases, considering all family members and control group are suggested.