Parental involvement in pediatric cardiology outpatient visits

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Healthcare
• Parental Involvement in Medicine
• Subspecialty Care

Background:

• Limited data exists on parental engagement in pediatric subspecialty care.
• Understanding parental presence is crucial for optimizing healthcare delivery.
• Previous research has not extensively detailed the dynamics of parental accompaniment in pediatric cardiology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze trends in parental involvement during pediatric cardiology visits.
• To quantify the frequency of mothers, fathers, or both parents accompanying children.
• To explore variations in parental presence based on visit type and child's age.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 3,118 patient visits over a 5-year period.
• Data collected from a pediatric cardiology outpatient setting.
• Categorization of visits based on accompanying parent(s): both parents, mother alone, or father alone.

Main Results:

• Mothers alone accompanied children in 64% of visits, while both parents were present in 29%, and fathers alone in 5%.
• These trends remained consistent across the 5-year study period and for initial consultations.
• Children seen with both parents were significantly younger than those accompanied by a single parent.

Conclusions:

• Mothers are the predominant caregivers attending pediatric subspecialty appointments.
• Findings underscore the critical role of maternal involvement in pediatric cardiology care.
• Results have implications for healthcare education, social support, research, and practice marketing.