title: Online Support Program for Parents of Children With a Chronic Kidney Disease Using Intervention Mapping: A Development and Evaluation Protocol.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The care for children with a chronic kidney disease (CKD) is complex. Parents of these children may experience high levels of stress in managing their child's disease, potentially leading to negative effects on their child's health outcomes. Although the experienced problems are well known, adequate (online) support for these parents is lacking.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective of the study is to describe the systematic development of an online support program for parents of children with CKD, and how this program will be evaluated.
  
  
  METHODS
  Intervention Mapping (IM) was used for the development of the program. After conducting a needs assessment, defining program objectives, searching for theories, and selecting practical applications, the online program e-Powered Parents was developed. e-Powered Parents consist of three parts: (1) an informative part with information about CKD and treatments, (2) an interactive part where parents can communicate with other parents and health care professionals by chat, private messages, and a forum, and (3) a training platform consisting of four modules: Managing stress, Setting limits, Communication, and Coping with emotions. In a feasibility study, the potential effectiveness and effect size of e-Powered Parents will be evaluated using an explorative randomized controlled trial with parents of 120 families. The outcomes will be the child's quality of life, parental stress and fatigue, self-efficacy in the communication with health care professionals, and family management. A process evaluation will provide insight in parents' experiences, including their experienced level of support.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Study results are expected to be published in the summer of 2016.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the development of e-Powered Parents using IM was time-consuming, IM has been a useful protocol. IM provided us with a systematic framework for structuring the development process. The participatory planning group was valuable as well; knowledge, experiences, and visions were shared, ensuring us that parents and health care professionals support the program.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Dutch Trial Registration: NTR4808; www.trialregister.nl (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6cfAYHcYb).
authors.affiliation: IQ Healthcare, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands. wytske.geense@radboudumc.nl.
authors.forename: Wytske W
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6497-6158
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Geense
authors.forename: Betsie Gi
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8884-6235
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: van Gaal
authors.forename: Jacqueline L
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3012-5838
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Knoll
authors.forename: Elisabeth Am
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1156-5264
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Cornelissen
authors.forename: Lisette
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7129-3766
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schoonhoven
authors.forename: Gerjo
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3501-4096
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kok
keywords: child; chronic kidney failure; family health; health promotion; intervention mapping; parents; program development; telemedicine