Parental Ability to Assess Pediatric Vital Signs

Area of Science:

• Pediatrics
• Digital Health
• Clinical Assessment

Background:

• Accurate vital signs are crucial for pediatric telehealth.
• Parental assessment of child's heart rate (HR) and respiratory rate (RR) is being considered for remote care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate parents' accuracy in measuring their child's HR and RR.
• To determine the utility of parental vital sign measurements for telehealth.

Main Methods:

• 203 child-parent pairs participated in a controlled study.
• Parents used palpation, auscultation, and smartphone apps to measure HR and RR.
• Measurements were compared against gold standards (ECG for HR, professional assessment for RR).

Main Results:

• Parents significantly underestimated HR by palpation (bias -18 bpm) and showed wide limits of agreement with auscultation.
• Smartphone applications did not improve HR measurement accuracy.
• Parental RR measurements were inaccurate, with low sensitivity (37%) for detecting accelerated rates.

Conclusions:

• Parents are unable to accurately assess their child's HR and RR.
• Remote digital assessments of children should not rely on parental vital sign measurements.