Videos and Simple Text to Empower Parents to Handle Their Sick Children
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Completed
- Sponsor
- Enrollment
- 1,558
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Changed in parental self-efficacy: Difference in the number of parents in the two arms suggesting that the new material about sick children resulted in an changed parental self-efficacy among the parents who were allowed to watch the material
Study Overview
Brief Summary
Background:
The Medical Helpline 1813 (Capital Region, Denmark) handles acute, non-life-threatening medical emergencies. Approx. 200,000 calls/year concern children (ref: Rasmussen et al), and about 30% are referred to a pediatric urgent care center. However, many of these children presents very mild symptoms, which require neither treatment nor paraclinical tests, merely parental guidance.
We want to empower the parents when handling their sick children by videos and simple text accessible from their smartphone. We want the parents to handle mild symptoms at home and to know when they must contact the medical helpline 1813 or a general practitioner.
We have produced 8 short videos and simple texts about the most common symptoms in sick children. The material covers about 70% of the symptoms in acute sick children. The material is developed in collaboration between pediatricians and professional movie producers and is approved by the Danish Society of Pediatrics and other relevant medical societies.
Purpose:
It will be studied if the new material about symptoms in sick children result in 5% higher parental self-efficacy among the parents who were allowed to watch the material.
Moreover, it will be studied if the new material resulted in less children examined by a doctor, and satisfied parents.
Method:
Parents who call the medical helpline about a medically ill child aged 6 months to 12 years will be offered to try the new material. If they accept, every second parent will be allowed given access to the new material, and every other parent will receive the usual triage by telephone. The results of these otherwise similar groups will be compared. Parents answer surveys about their experiences.
Yield:
Videos and simple text may empower parents to handle their sick children. The study may result in fewer children referred to hospitals, more appropriate use of resources and better experiences for the families.
Detailed Description
Background:
Each year there are approximately 200.000 calls regarding sick children younger than 12 years (injuries excluded) to the medical helpline 1813 in the Capital Region of Denmark (ref: Rasmussen et al). These children are not so ill that the parents call the emergency helpline 112, but the parents need to contact the health care system outside their general practitioners' opening hours. After contact with the parents, the medical helpline health professionals (primarily physicians or nurses) may either: 1) refer the child to a pediatric department, 2) refer child to assessment in a pediatric urgent care center, 3) guide the parents on how to perform self-care at home or 4) advice the child to the general practitioners next work day. About 40 % of the calls to 1813 regarding children are referred to a hospital. We estimate that 40 % of those presents mild symptoms, which often does not require treatment or paraclinical tests and many could have benefitted from being observed at home.
Purpose:
Reviews conducted in child health related areas, have indicated that quality of health information varies significantly and Internet searches may reveal information that is not evidence-based, or may even be inconsistent with international treatment recommendations (ref: Pehora et al, Fahy et al). Often health information will also focus on diagnosis, not symptoms, which makes it difficult for parents to navigate the health directions. The study objective is to investigate if it is possible by using videos and simple action cards about common symptoms in children - to empower parents and citizens to take better care of sick children with milder symptoms at home including to know when they must call for medical help. This project therefore aims to, by increasing parental knowledge, decrease the number of children admitted to the hospital with mild symptoms, and to decrease the number of children with late arrival to the hospital with symptoms on critical illness.
Method:
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Health Services Research
- Masking
- Double (Care Provider, Investigator)
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 6 Months to 143 Months (Child)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria
- •Parents calling 1813 with children aged 6 months to 11,9 years who accepts to receive the new information material.
Exclusion Criteria
- •Children with parents who do not speak Danish
- •Children without a Danish civil registration number
- •The parent does not call from a Danish number
- •Parents calling 1813 with children with an injury
- •Parents calling 1813 within 72 hours regarding same child
- •Parents who are not calling from a smart-phone
Arms & Interventions
Intervention: Receiving video material
The parents who accepts to participate and receives videos and action cards by sms
Intervention: Intervention Group (Behavioral)
Control group
The parents who accepts to participate, but proceed to 1813 and do not receive videos and action cards
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Changed in parental self-efficacy: Difference in the number of parents in the two arms suggesting that the new material about sick children resulted in an changed parental self-efficacy among the parents who were allowed to watch the material
Time Frame: the parents are sent a link to an online questionnaire at 12pm the day after the medical helpline contact
Difference in the number of parents in the two arms suggesting that the new material about sick children resulted in an changed parental self-efficacy among the parents who were allowed to watch the material. High parental self-efficacy defined as parents who answered "very much" or "to a great extent" to at least two of the following questions: "To which degree were you able to take care of your child, after contacting 1813?" "Do you know what to do at home, if your child presents the same symptoms another time?" "Do you know, the critical point at which you should contact your GP or 1813, if your child develops the same symptoms another time?"
Secondary Outcomes
- Did the new material about sick children result in more satisfied parents?(Registered by questionnaire sent out at 12pm the day after the medical helpline contact)
- Hospital visits(the hospital chart of all children are read within 3-8 days after the call)
- Use of professional consultations(Registered by questionnaire sent out at 12pm the day after the medical helpline contact)
- Course of action at the medical helpline(disposition is registered by the call operator immediately after the call)
- Non-participating parents(these parameters will be studied at the completion of enrollment of patients)