Neuropsychological and Biopsychosocial Evolution During Pediatric Transplantation: Pre/Post-stages and at 6 Months

Identification of Needs and Neuropsychological and Biopsychosocial Evolution in the Pre/Post-transplant and 6-month Follow-up Phases in Pediatric Population (the TransplantKIDS Mental Health Project)

This pioneering prospective observational study aims to examine biopsychosocial and neuropsychological functioning, care needs and predictors of therapeutic adherence in children/adolescents in pre/post-surgical transplant (solid organ or allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell) phases. Hypothesis: H1. Differences in biopsychosocial and neuropsychological functioning and adherence will be observed between transplant types; H2. Executive functioning will mediate the relationship between anxiety, sleep disturbance and pain intensity/interference and adherence; H3. There will be a significant improvement in different neuropsychological indicators 6 months post-transplantation. Sample: patients (8-18 years) extracted by non-probabilistic sampling, estimating a sample size of 60 patients (30 for each type of transplant, organ and haematopoietic) from Hospital Universitario La Paz (Madrid). Individual pre/post-surgical assessments will be carried out (after 2 and 4 weeks), as well as at 6 months post-transplant, both in person (neurocognitive) and through the secure platform REDCap (completed by patients and their legal guardians). Finally, focus groups will be conducted among patients, their relatives and medical-surgical professionals to identify barriers to therapeutic adherence and unmet care needs during the pre-, peri- and post-surgical process.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Spanish as mother tongue or a very high level of Spanish in order to understand their participation in the study, as well as to be able to complete the measurement instruments.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Diagnosis of intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder or acquired brain damage.
• Diagnosis of uncontrolled/stabilised comorbid disease, independent of the disease motivating the transplantation process.