Randomized Waitlist Control Study on the Effectiveness of Integrated Body Mind Intervention on the Biological and Psychosocial Aspects of Children with Eczema and Their Parents

Background: This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of Integrated Body Mind Spirit (IBMS) approach, an intervention which based on Eastern philosophies with various effective therapeutic techniques, on primary school aged children with eczema and their parents in Hong Kong. Eczema, a kind of psychophysiological disorders, caused an adverse effect on not only physical but also psychological and emotional aspects of patients. Despite 90% of patients with eczema could be effectively treated by basic pharmacological treatment, children with eczema reported various mood issues and developmental problems. Moreover, their parents reported eczema diminished family’s quality of life. It would be meaningful to examine an effective intervention approach on helping patients with eczema and their family members.

Methods: A randomised controlled study which data were collected before and after the 6-weeks 3-hour IBMS intervention in both paralleled parents and children group was conducted. 150 pairs of children (aged 6-11) with eczema and their parents were recruited from community social service agencies. Self-administrated questionnaires were reported by children and their parents in order to assess their stress, anxiety, depressive mood, holistic well-being, family functioning and quality of life. Moreover, children’s eczema severity would be reflected by dermatologist consultation. Yet, biomarkers include blood immunoglobulin E, cytokine assay and transforming growth factor were examined in the blood samples of children with eczema. Effectiveness of the intervention will be evaluated using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) on the 2 time points, between the intervention and the waitlist control group. Ordinary least square (ORS) regression will be used to understand the relationship between the outcomes and covariates.

Results: A one-way ANCOVA was conducted to compare the effectiveness of group effect whilst controlling for baseline as covariate. There was a significant difference in stress level [F(1,147)=6.10, p<.05]; holistic wellbeing (afflictive sensation [F(1,147)=3.91, p<0.5]; afflictive ideation [F(1,147)=4.51, p<0.5]; mindfulness awareness [F(1,147)=5.08, p<0.5]) between parents in IBMS group and control group. A significant group effect in Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index [F(1,147=5.33, p<0.5] and Paediatric Allergic Disease Quality of Life [F(1,147)=4.16, p<0.5] among children between two groups. The biomarker, Transforming growth factor was also found significant different [F(1,147)=3.86, p<.05] among children between two groups at post group measurement. Regression analysis showed that parents’ anxiety level could be predicted by their own changes in stress, depressive mood and perceived family functioning, as well as changes in children’s blood cytokine and transforming growth factor [R² = .35, F(5, 144) = 15.69, p < .001].

Implications: Eczema is a multi-factorial disease which highly related to the interplay of physical and psychological factors, an integrated intervention would be able to address patient’s mind-body connection which further have better address on patients’ needs. The result was not only provided us a more comprehensive picture of intervention effects, but also provided a ground-breaking insight on the mind-body connection and the interpersonal processes among parent-child interaction.