Hospital Admissions in Children Aged 3 Months to 5 Years Presenting With Fever to the Emergency Department

Completed

• Conditions: Fever

• Registration Number: NCT01196793
• Lead Sponsor: Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Brief Summary

This study primarily aims to describe factors associated with hospitalisation of children aged 3 months to 5 years presenting with fever to an urban paediatric A\&E departments by describing and analysing characteristics both of those patients admitted to hospital and those managed in the community. To complement this, information on the short-term healthcare utilization by families attending the emergency department because of feverish illness will be collected. The study will be carried out in one participating centre in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, respectively, to enable a head to head comparison of the assessment and admission practices in two European countries. The resulting data will be used as the basis for further research in this area and will provide information on how to optimally structure service provision in acute febrile childhood illness.

Detailed Description

A significant number of children 0 to 5 years of age are seen in paediatric Accident \& Emergency departments (A\&E) with feverish illness. Most of these patients could safely be managed in a primary care setting, particularly with guidelines in place on how to optimally assess these children. Some patients, however, will require admission, either because of a potentially serious underlying disease or because of other factors, for example parental concern or difficulties in communication because of language barriers. An increase in the number of children attending A\&E departments with feverish illness as well as a rise in the volume of admissions has been noted over time. To enable an appropriate adaptation of acute medical services for children an in depth understanding of the assessment and admission processes is crucial.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2010-09-06
• Study First Submitted QC: 2010-09-07
• Study First Posted: 2010-09-08
• Study Start: 2012-04-30
• Primary Completion: 2014-07-03
• Study Completion: 2014-07-03
• Results First Submitted: 2019-07-24
• Results First Submitted QC: 2019-07-24
• Status Verified: 2019-09
• Results First Posted: 2019-09-09
• Last Update Submitted: 2019-09-09
• Last Update Posted: 2019-09-17

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 108

Inclusion Criteria

• Child aged 3months to 5years
• Temperature above or equal to 38°C measured by any method or reported hot by parents

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Exclusion Criteria

• none

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Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Number of Participants With Admission to Hospital Due to Parental High Levels of Worry	7-10 days	Interview with the patient family to evaluation of the reasons for admission to emergency department

Trial Locations

Locations (2)

University Children's Hospital; 🇨🇭 Zurich, Switzerland

St Mary's Hospital, Imperial NHS Hospitals Trust; 🇬🇧 London, United Kingdom