Multimedia Based Information to Parents in a Pediatric Acute Ward: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Health Communication
• Interventions: Behavioral: verbal information; Behavioral: Multimedia information

• Registration Number: NCT01659879
• Lead Sponsor: Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Brief Summary

The aim of this study is to determine whether multimedia based health information presented in a pediatric acute ward to parents of children with breathing difficulties due to lower respiratory tract infections, is more effective than verbal information to reduce the parent's anxiety and to increase satisfaction with nursing care and health information.

Detailed Description

The intervention website www.syktbarn.no is an open Norwegian online resource for parents of small children, and the site contains videos, audio clips, animations, illustrations, pictures and text materials regarding children's illnesses and normal development. In addition, the parents can use an interactive symptom checker that will help them to decide what to do and when to seek medical advice when their child is sick. The uniqueness of the website is the authentic video clips of sick children with common childhood symptoms like breathing difficulties, signs of dehydration, rash, cough and fever.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2011-01
• Primary Completion: 2011-03
• Study Completion: 2011-08
• Study First Submitted: 2012-08-02
• Study First Submitted QC: 2012-08-03
• Study First Posted: 2012-08-08
• Status Verified: 2023-12
• Last Update Submitted: 2023-12-28
• Last Update Posted: 2023-12-29

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 101

Inclusion Criteria

• parents of 0-15 years old children with breathing difficulties caused by LRTI (bronchiolitis, laryngitis or pneumonia) or asthma exacerbation
• ability to communicate and read Norwegian

Exclusion Criteria

• parents of children with chronic diseases who have direct access to the acute ward, children with oxygen saturation less than 90 %, or other very sick children who need urgent treatment

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
verbal information	verbal information	Verbal health information by a nurse in the acute ward concerning the child's diagnosis, treatment and recovery time, after the evaluation by the pediatrician
multimedia information	Multimedia information	Health information concerning the child's diagnosis, treatment and recovery time after evaluation by the pediatrician, using a 15 minutes long standardized health information package with multimedia elements from the Norwegian website www.syktbarn.no (English version: www.childhealthguide.com)

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
parental anxiety	at discharge from the acute ward. An average stay in the acute ward is about 5 hours.	evaluated with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) (translated to Norwegian)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Parental satisfaction with the health information given in the acute ward.	1-2 weeks after discharge from the hospital. An average stay in the acute ward is about 5 hours, and an average stay in the children's department is 2 days.	Evaluated with a structured telephone interview 1-2 weeks after hospital discharge, performed by the main researcher.
parental satisfaction with nursing care	at discharge from the acute ward. An average stay in the acute ward is about 5 hours.	evaluated with the Consumer Emergency Care Satisfaction Scale (CECSS)

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Department of Pediatrics, St. Olav's University Hospital; 🇳🇴 Trondheim, Norway