The effect of Spiritual Support of caregivers on quality of life of children aged 8-12 with leukemia

Children with leukemia experience a decreased quality of life during different stages of treatment. Considering the importance of spirituality in health system, the spiritual health should be included in support and treatment program of caregivers of children with leukemia. This research was carried out to investigate the effect of spiritual support of caregiver on quality of life of children aged 8-12 with leukemia.
In this clinical trial study 60 caregivers of children with leukemia participated. The Intervention group received spiritual intervention for 5 sessions of 60 minutes based on the Richards and Bergin pattern focusing on the rituals of Islam including prayer, trust and appeal, patience, gratitude and forgiveness. Research tools consisted of demographic data questionnaire, spiritual health questionnaire and teenager's quality of life questionnaire which were completed by the caregivers before and after the intervention. Statistical analyses were conducted by SPSS version 16.
The mean age of caregivers in the intervention and control groups was 35.7±6.2 and 40±0.9, respectively. According to the findings, there was no significant difference between average scores of quality of life in the both groups after and before intervention (P˃0.05). However, after the Intervention, the average score of social dimension of quality of life in intervention group was significantly lower than the control group) P=0.033).
It seems that holding sessions of spiritual support for caregivers can increase social dimension of quality of life of children with leukemia.Therefore, it is suggested to plan such low cost and effective educational programs for caregivers of children with leukemia.