Ekti Genc, R., & Conk, Z. (2008). Impact of effective nursing interventions to the fatigue syndrome in children who receive chemotherapy. Cancer Nursing, 31, 312–317.

The primary aim was to examine the effects of a nursing intervention for fatigue on children aged seven to 12 years who received chemotherapy. The secondary aim was to examine the relationship between fatigue and demographic variables, diagnoses, and therapy-related variables.

The experimental group received education about fatigue with chemotherapy and a fatigue handbook. Education provided included specific activities that decreased fatigue. Children were also walked in the hallway for physical activity. The control group was given routine nursing care. These activities were performed for one week. Participants were randomly assigned.

• The final sample size included 60 participants.
• Mean age was 9.23 years for the experimental group and 9.37 years for the control group. The percentage of males was 60% in the experimental group and 63.3% in the control group.
• Participants had acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) (71.66%), acute myeloid leukemia (AML) (11.67%), and lymphoma (16.67%). 
• No significant differences were found between the groups in terms of age, diagnosis, sex, or hemoglobin level.

• Multisite
• Participants were recruited in the Department of Pediatric Oncology, Ege University Faculty of Medicine and Behçet Uz Hosptial of Children and SSK Tepecik Teaching Hospital, Clinics of Pediatrics.

This was a randomized, controlled trial.

• The Fatigue Scale-Child (FS-C) was used to measure participants’ fatigue and consisted of 14 items that describe the intensity of fatigue on a five-point scale.
• The Fatigue Scale-Parent (FS-P) used 17 items to assess parents’ perceptions of their child's fatigue on a five-point scale.
• The validity and reliability of both tests was assessed by 60 other similar children and parents.

The difference between the two mean values on the FS-C between the experimental and control groups was statistically significant (p < 0.00). The difference between the two mean values of the FS-P between the experimental and control groups was statistically significant (p < 0.00).

The study showed some promise for an intervention to reduce fatigue. However, fatigue was not eliminated in the experimental group, and baseline fatigue scores were not collected from either group.

• The control group received less attention.
• The experimental group had a limited age range and diagnosis, which may cause difficulty in generalizing the results.

It would be feasible to perform the study procedure for the experimental group in practice if the education continued to prove effective on fatigue.