Parental severity assessment predicts supportive care in infant bronchiolitis

Area of Science:

• Pediatrics
• Respiratory Medicine
• Clinical Assessment

Background:

• Acute bronchiolitis is a common respiratory infection in infants.
• Accurate assessment of disease severity is crucial for timely intervention.
• Parental perception of illness severity is often used but its predictive value is unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if parental assessment of disease severity at hospital admission predicts supportive care needs in infants with acute bronchiolitis.
• To develop a predictive model for supportive care utilization.

Main Methods:

• Prospective cohort study of 267 infants (0-12 months) with acute bronchiolitis.
• Parents completed a three-item visual analogue scale (VAS) for Activity, Feeding, and Illness.
• Multivariate logistic regression used to predict supportive care based on admission data.

Main Results:

• Parental VAS scores for Activity, Feeding, and Illness significantly predicted supportive care (ORs 1.23-1.36).
• A prediction model including parental scores, SpO2, gender, and age had an AUC of 0.76.
• The model achieved 81% sensitivity and 61% specificity for predicting supportive care.

Conclusions:

• Parental assessment at hospital admission moderately predicts the need for supportive care in infants with acute bronchiolitis.
• This highlights the utility of incorporating parental input into clinical decision-making for pediatric respiratory illness.