Co-production of a mobile application for parents of acutely ill children under five: 'iPoorly child symptom checker'

Acutely-ill children under five years are increasing users of urgent and emergency care with no increase in acuity of presenting illnesses. This raises concerns about parents' knowledge and confidence in assessing the severity of symptoms of acute illness, despite the abundance of digital information available.

We co-designed the iPoorly child symptom checker app using experience-based co-design methodology with seven parents and seven health professional patient and public involvement representatives. The prototype was iteratively developed on a no-code platform, then released for testing on android and iOS app stores for six weeks. The app was downloaded 603 times and 60% of users completed the embedded evaluation form.

System usability scale items were all positively scored by 91% to 53% of respondents. Thematic analysis of open text responses identified that respondents found the app easy to use and reported that it enhanced their understanding of acute childhood illness, increased their confidence in caring for their child, reassured them about their child's illness and/or helped them to decide whether or not to seek medical help.

These findings show that providing parents with accessible, trustworthy information on symptoms of childhood illness increases knowledge, understanding and confidence in caring and seeking help for a sick child. The results demonstrate proof of concept for this co-developed prototype app and the iterative process of development.

Apps can be a powerful adjunct to information resources nurses provide for parents and should be embedded in health services for children.