What is the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions during a child’s hospitalization in an intensive care unit on family-related psychosocial, psychological and physiological outcomes?
This review will consider any studies that include families with a child (< 18 years of age) hospitalized in an intensive care unit. This review will include studies with any individuals that identify themselves as a family member of the admitted child. Family members are those who are considered to be any part of the social support system that surrounds a child.
This review will consider studies that evaluated psychosocial interventions that took place throughout the hospitalization of the child in an intensive care unit. The intervention must be initiated during the period of time that the child is hospitalized in the intensive care unit and completed prior to discharge of the child, but outcomes may be measured at any time during or following the admission
This review will consider studies that compare the intervention to any comparators, including standard care, alternative treatment, placebo or no treatment control.
This review will consider studies that include the following outcomes: i. Psychosocial Outcomes: measured using standardized questionnaires related to quality of life (e.g., Health Related Quality of Life), satisfaction (e.g., Family Satisfaction ICU), family functioning (e.g., Strengths and Difficulties) or other measures as reported by studies. ii. Psychological Outcomes: measured using standardized questionnaires for families (e.g., Parental Stressor Scale: PICU, Acute Stress Disorder Scale, PTSD Checklist) and standardized questionnaires for children (e.g., Children’s Revised Impact of Events Scale) or other measures as reported by studies. iii. Physiological outcomes: measured using demographic data (e.g., Length of Stay), standardized scoring tools or questionnaires (e.g., Pediatric Risk of Mortality Score, Acquired PICU Morbidities), family sleep, family self-report of health, or other measures as reported by studies.