Integrative and Complementary Interventions Result in Significant Positive Effect Sizes in Quality of Life and Symptom Burden among Patients with Pediatric Cancer and Other Serious Illness

Integrative and Complementary Interventions Result in Significant Positive Effect Sizes in Quality of Life and Symptom Burden among Patients with Pediatric Cancer and Other Serious Illness | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Integrative and Complementary Interventions Result in Significant Positive Effect Sizes in Quality of Life and Symptom Burden among Patients with Pediatric Cancer and Other Serious Illness Jennifer L. Raybin, Kathleen E. Montgomery, Micah Skeens, Norah Janosy, and 5 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7208100/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract (max 250, current 249) Purpose: Children with cancer report intractable symptoms and endorse using complementary and integrative health interventions (CHI) without strong published evidence. We conducted a prospective study of CHI in 100 participants at two children’s hospitals. The secondary aim was to estimate outcome effect sizes. Here we report preliminary effect size estimates of CHI on quality of life (QOL) and symptom burden in pediatric participants with cancer and other serious illness. Methods: We used standardized patient reported outcome (PRO) measures in response to CHI sessions. Data were collected at baseline, pre/post CHI, and monthly up to 6 months. Outcomes were QOL and symptom burden. Results: Participants (n=100) were aged 2-29 years (M=13.5, SD=5.6), 65% identified as female, 23% were from underrepresented populations, 52% were receiving treatment for cancer versus other serious illness. Participants completed 191 CHI sessions with 811 PRO assessments. CHI included acupuncture (39%), aromatherapy (35%), creative arts (20%), massage therapy (5%), and hypnosis (1%). Mixed-effects models controlling for cancer diagnosis revealed improvement in anxiety, fatigue, pain, sadness, and mood (Cohen’s d effect sizes 0.20-1.45; all p<0.05). Creative arts were associated with improvement in all symptoms except for nausea (0.31-1.45; all p<0.03). QOL improved over time (b = 0.21; p<0.05) and was clinically significant compared to standard clinical cut offs. Conclusion: Patients (or proxy) reported improvement in QOL and symptom burden with CHI. The positive effect size estimates support for the need for additional efficacy studies of targeted CHI among children with serious illnesses including cancer, especially creative arts interventions. integrative complementary quality of life symptoms childhood cancer creative arts Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7208100","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":512624217,"identity":"51feaf99-8968-4578-baeb-c13392d8ee89","order_by":0,"name":"Jennifer L. 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We conducted a prospective study of CHI in 100 participants at two children’s hospitals. The secondary aim was to estimate outcome effect sizes. Here we report preliminary effect size estimates of CHI on quality of life (QOL) and symptom burden in pediatric participants with cancer and other serious illness. Methods: We used standardized patient reported outcome (PRO) measures in response to CHI sessions. Data were collected at baseline, pre/post CHI, and monthly up to 6 months. Outcomes were QOL and symptom burden. Results: Participants (n=100) were aged 2-29 years (M=13.5, SD=5.6), 65% identified as female, 23% were from underrepresented populations, 52% were receiving treatment for cancer versus other serious illness. Participants completed 191 CHI sessions with 811 PRO assessments. CHI included acupuncture (39%), aromatherapy (35%), creative arts (20%), massage therapy (5%), and hypnosis (1%). Mixed-effects models controlling for cancer diagnosis revealed improvement in anxiety, fatigue, pain, sadness, and mood (Cohen’s d effect sizes 0.20-1.45; all p\u003c0.05). Creative arts were associated with improvement in all symptoms except for nausea (0.31-1.45; all p\u003c0.03). QOL improved over time (b = 0.21; p\u003c0.05) and was clinically significant compared to standard clinical cut offs. Conclusion: Patients (or proxy) reported improvement in QOL and symptom burden with CHI. 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