The Effect of the Family Empowerment Model on Quality of Life in Children with Chronic Renal Failure: Children’s and Parents’ Views

BACKGROUND: Chronic renal failure (CRF) causes a gradual decline in kidney function to the extent that CRF patients need long-term clinical care, which affects the patients’ family function and quality of life (QoL). OBJECTIVES: The present study was conducted to study the effects of the family-centered empowerment model on QoL in children with CRF during 2012-2013. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this quasi-experimental study, 68 children with CRF and their parents were randomly assigned to two groups, intervention and control, via a random numbers table. An empowerment program was then conducted over the course of seven 45-minute sessions, and a questionnaire to ascertain demographic characteristics and the core pediatric QoL Inventory (version 4) were administered to both groups before the sessions and one month after the last training session. The data were analyzed using SPSS 20. RESULTS: The mean age of the children was 10.2 and 10.5 years in the intervention and control groups, respectively. The duration of the disease was five years in both groups. Furthermore, a significant difference was seen in the mean score of the children’s QoL from their own perspectives in the physical and psychosocial domains and the total QoL score in the intervention group before and after the training (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Since family-centered empowerment interventions can determine the training- and treatment-related needs of patients and are low cost and effective, they may help parents promote their children’s self-efficacy and QoL.