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Acute illnesses in children. A description and analysis of parents' perception of illness threat
1Institute of Community Health, Department of General Practice, Odense.
Insights
Parents perceive their child's illness as a high threat when they are generally worried, lack experience with children's health issues, or have daughters. These families require targeted support.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health
- Family Psychology
- Childhood Illness Perception
Background:
- Parental perception of illness threat significantly impacts family well-being.
- Understanding factors influencing parental stress is crucial for targeted interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- Identify families with high perceived child illness threat.
- Determine specific health conditions and parental factors associated with heightened threat perception.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective registration of diagnosis and illness threat perception in children under 8.
- Inclusion of psychosocial family conditions and parental experience.
- Multivariate analysis of a large Danish cohort.
Main Results:
- One in four families reported a high perception of illness threat.
- Diagnoses like middle ear inflammation, bronchitis, pneumonia, and accidents were key triggers.
- Parental factors such as general worry, lack of experience with children's illnesses, and child's gender (girls) increased threat perception.
Conclusions:
- "Worried" parents, those lacking experience with children's health, and parents of girls are more likely to perceive illness as a high threat.
- These families represent a vulnerable group needing specialized care and support.
Objectives:
To identify families in which the parents reported the child's illness as particularly stressful (high perception of illness threat), and to find out which health problems the parents perceive as particularly threatening.
Design:
The parents registered the diagnosis and perception of illness threat in relation to the child's latest illness within a four-week retrospective period. Selected psychosocial conditions of the families were recorded in the same questionnaire.
Setting:
18,949 families with at least one child under the age of 8 years, resident in the County of Ringkøbing in western Denmark at 1 March 1988.
Subjects:
An age-stratified random sample of 1982 families was entered in the study. 85% of the families returned the questionnaire.
Results:
There was a considerable variation in the parents' perception of illness threat. On the basis of a score it was possible to group parents with a high, medium, and low perception of illness threat. Every fourth family reported a high perception of illness threat. A multivariate analysis, with a high perception of illness threat as dependent and selected psychosocial conditions and the diagnosis as independent variables, led to the following main results: 1) parents with a high perception of the general health threat ("worried" parents) most frequently reported a high perception of illness threat, 2) the diagnoses were decisive; in particular, inflammation in the middle ear, bronchitis, pneumonia, and accidents led to the parents' reporting a high perception of illness threat, 3) parents without experience of children and children's illnesses more frequently perceived an actual illness as a high illness threat than parents with this experience, 4) parents more frequently perceive an illness in girls as a high illness threat.
Conclusions:
"Worried" parents, without experience of children and children's illnesses, perceive the child's latest illness as a high illness threat. These families need special care.