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Additional medical information: prevalence, source, and benefit to parents
1Department of Paediatric Surgery, The Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust, University College London, London, England, UK.
Insights
Parents often seek extra medical information for their children, but this does not guarantee improved understanding of surgical risks or outcomes. Perceived knowledge may not align with actual comprehension.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Surgery
- Medical Information Literacy
- Parental Education
Background:
- Parents of children with surgical conditions frequently seek additional medical information beyond healthcare provider consultations.
- Understanding a child's illness, treatment, and prognosis is crucial for informed parental decision-making and support.
- The sources and accuracy of information parents access can significantly impact their comprehension and management of a child's health.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify the primary sources from which parents obtain supplementary medical information regarding their child's surgical condition.
- To assess the accuracy of parental interpretation and retention of this acquired medical knowledge.
- To evaluate the correlation between information sources, parental education, and the accuracy of their understanding.
Main Methods:
- A prospective, cross-sectional study involving 108 parents of children admitted for surgical diseases.
- Parental knowledge was assessed using both self-appraisal questionnaires and objective interviews conducted by an uninvolved investigator.
- Evaluated understanding of illness, treatment, operative risks, and long-term outcomes.
Main Results:
- 77% of parents sought additional information, primarily from general practitioners (63%), books (46%), and the internet (24%).
- Objective interviews revealed higher rates of inadequate knowledge regarding operative risk (42%) and long-term outcomes (28%) compared to self-appraisals.
- Acquiring more information did not correlate with improved accuracy; higher educational attainment and major operations were linked to better knowledge.
Conclusions:
- While parents actively seek supplementary medical information, it often fails to enhance their grasp of critical aspects like surgical risks and outcomes.
- Parents' self-perceived understanding of their child's medical situation can be inaccurate, highlighting a gap between confidence and actual knowledge.
- Educational background and the complexity of the child's condition are more influential on accurate parental knowledge than the quantity of information sought.
Purpose:
The aim of this study was to (1) characterize the source of additional medical information acquired by parents and (2) to verify how much information is correctly interpreted and remembered correctly.
Methods:
A cross-sectional prospective study was made of parents of 108 children with surgical diseases consecutively admitted to a children's hospital in 1999. The median age of the children was 3 years (range, 0.01 to 16), and that of parents was 34 years (range, 18 to 54). Parental knowledge and understanding of their child's illness, operation, potential operative risk, and long-term outcome were scored on the basis of (1) parents' self appraisal (questionnaire) and (2) objective evaluation (interview) performed by one investigator not involved in the child's care.
Results:
Parents' education included a university degree (15%), entry examination for university (13%), basic educational qualification (47%), and no educational qualification (15%). Additional medical information was obtained by 77% of the parents (63% from general practitioner, 46% from books, 31% from popular magazines, 24% from internet). Inadequate knowledge of illness and treatment was highlighted in 12% and 19% of the assessment made by interview, respectively, compared with 8% and 14% of the self appraisals. Inadequate knowledge of operative risk was higher in the assessment made by interview (42%) compared with self appraisal (9%; P <.0001). Similarly, inadequate knowledge of long-term outcome was higher in the interview (28%) compared with self appraisal (13%; P <.05). Acquisition of additional medical information irrespective of the source did not affect the accuracy of parental knowledge. Medical knowledge was more accurate in parents of children who required major operations and in those with higher educational qualifications (P <.05).
Conclusions:
Parents commonly obtain additional medical information. However, this information does not necessarily improve parents' understanding of the child's operative risk and long-term problems. Parents' perception of having adequate medical information often is incorrect.