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Parental perception of urgency of illness
Shiva Kalidindi1, Prashant Mahajan, Ronald Thomas
1Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Children's Hospital of Western Ontario, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. drshiva@gmail.org
Insights
Parents often overestimate their child's illness urgency compared to emergency department (ED) physicians. A significant number of nonurgent cases, as perceived by parents, actually require immediate medical attention.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Healthcare Perception Studies
Background:
- Parental perception of illness urgency significantly influences healthcare-seeking behavior.
- Accurate triage in pediatric emergency departments (EDs) is crucial for patient outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate parental assessment of pediatric illness urgency.
- To compare parental urgency ratings with emergency department physician assessments.
Main Methods:
- Prospective study involving 800 pediatric patients and their parents/legal guardians.
- Parents and ED physicians independently classified illness urgency as 'urgent' or 'nonurgent'.
Main Results:
- 94% of parents deemed their child's illness urgent; 6% nonurgent.
- 31% of children perceived as nonurgent by parents required urgent care from physicians.
Conclusions:
- Significant discrepancies exist between parental and physician urgency assessments in pediatric EDs.
- A notable proportion of children with perceived nonurgent conditions necessitate urgent medical evaluation.
Objective:
To assess parental perception of urgency of illness and compare this with an emergency department (ED) physician's assessment of the same.
Methods:
A prospective study was conducted on convenience sample of parents/legal guardians of 800 patients presenting to the pediatric ED. Parents and physicians were asked to classify the urgency of their child's illness.
Results:
For this study, we grouped the urgency of illness as "urgent" (care needed within 24 hours) and "nonurgent" (care could safely wait until the next day). Ninety-four percent of parents considered their child's illness as urgent and 6% as nonurgent. Of the patients whose parents perceived the illness as nonurgent, 31% were assessed by physicians as requiring urgent attention.
Conclusions:
In our study, there was a significant discrepancy between the parental perceptions of urgency of illness and the ED physician assessment of the same. A significant proportion of children whose visits are perceived as nonurgent do require urgent care.
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