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Feasibility of high frequency parent-reported respiratory and diarrheal symptom data for children under five in a
Mary Dwan1, Indra Chaudhary2, John Kubale3
1Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Objectives:
We conducted a 12-week pilot study in Nepal, nested within the Chitwan Valley Family Study, to assess the feasibility and quality of parent-administered daily diaries for acute illness symptoms among children under five years of age.
Study Design:
We enrolled 56 children in 40 households. Households were 1:1 randomized to receive a daily reminder text message (versus none). Parents were instructed to complete a set of daily checklists of seven symptoms with specified definitions (yes/no): diarrhea, fever, runny nose, cough, difficulty breathing or wheezing, fatigue, and loss of appetite for each child under five in the household. Trained interviewers called respondents weekly to collect reports of symptom diary data.
Methods:
We analyzed indicators of diary completion, symptom reporting prevalence and incidence, and qualitative feedback to assess feasibility.
Results:
Overall, 88.7% of weekly diary periods were fully completed for all seven days. Each week, at least 90% of respondents completed the symptom diary for one or more days. Receiving a reminder text message did not significantly affect symptom diary completion, though all respondents receiving text reminders reported it helpful and the majority that did not reported that they would prefer a text reminder (73.7%).
Conclusion:
In conclusion, our pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of this data collection protocol, though it is possible we will observe greater dropout over time in a longer study period.
