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A Mobile App for Self-Triage for Pediatric Emergency Patients in Japan: 4 Year Descriptive Epidemiological Study
Yusuke Katayama1, Kosuke Kiyohara2, Tomoya Hirose1
1Department of Traumatology and Acute Critical Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan.
Insights
This study analyzed a pediatric self-triage mobile app, finding it was used for nearly 60,000 children over four years. Fever and head/neck injuries were the most common reasons for use, highlighting the app's role in managing child emergencies.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Digital Health
- Epidemiology
Background:
- Parents often face uncertainty regarding the urgency of pediatric illness or injury.
- A mobile application was developed to assist parents in assessing child conditions and locating healthcare facilities.
- The effectiveness of public-use medical applications requires thorough evaluation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To characterize the usage patterns of a pediatric self-triage mobile application.
- To analyze data from the app to understand its user profile.
Main Methods:
- A descriptive epidemiological study was conducted over four years (January 2016 - December 2019).
- Data included app usage by children or their guardians, excluding downloads without use.
- Variables were analyzed as medians (IQR) for continuous data and counts/percentages for categorical data.
Main Results:
- The app was utilized for 59,375 children, with a median age of 1 year.
- Infants (57.05%) and toddlers (27.33%) were the primary users.
- Common reasons for use included "fever" (36.41%) for sickness and "head and neck injury" (6.22%) for injuries.
Conclusions:
- This study provides a clear usage profile for a pediatric self-triage app in Japan.
- The findings offer insights into how parents utilize digital tools for emergency pediatric care decisions.
Background:
When children suffer sudden illness or injury, many parents wonder whether they should go to the hospital immediately or call an ambulance. In 2015, we developed a mobile app that allows parents or guardians to determine the urgency of their child's condition or call an ambulance and that indicates available hospitals and clinics when their child is suddenly sick or injured by simple selection of the child's chief complaints and symptoms. However, the effectiveness of medical apps used by the general public has not been well evaluated.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to clarify the use profile of this mobile app based on data usage in the app.
Methods:
This study was a descriptive epidemiological study with a 4-year study period running from January 2016 to December 2019. We included cases in which the app was used either by the children themselves or by their parents and other guardians. Cases in which the app was downloaded but never actually used were excluded from this study. Continuous variables are presented as median and IQR, and categorical variables are presented as actual number and percentages.
Results:
The app was used during the study period for 59,375 children whose median age was 1 year (IQR 0-3 years). The app was used for 33,874 (57.05%) infants, 16,228 (27.33%) toddlers, 8102 (13.65%) elementary school students, and 1117 (1.88%) junior high school students, with 54 (0.09%) having an unknown status. Furthermore, 31,519 (53.08%) were male and 27,329 (46.03%) were female, with sex being unknown for 527 (0.89%) children. "Sickness" was chosen for 49,101 (78.51%) patients, and "injury, poisoning, foreign, substances and others" was chosen for 13,441 (21.49%). For "sickness," "fever" was the most commonly selected option (22,773, 36.41%), followed by "cough" (4054, 6.48%), and "nausea/vomiting" (3528, 5.64%), whereas for "injury, poisoning, foreign substances and others," "head and neck injury" was the most commonly selected option (3887, 6.22%), followed by "face and extremities injury" (1493, 2.39%) and "injury and foreign substances in eyes" (1255, 2.01%).
Conclusions:
This study clarified the profile of use of a self-triage app for pediatric emergency patients in Japan.
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