TY - JOUR
T1 - Helping parents know when to seek help for an acutely ill child
T2 - Evidence based co-development of a mobile phone app using complex intervention methodology
AU - Neill, Sarah
AU - Bayes, Natasha
AU - Thompson, Matthew
AU - Croxson, Caroline
AU - Roland, Damian
AU - Lakhanpaul, Monica
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s)
PY - 2024/4/16
Y1 - 2024/4/16
N2 - Background: Acute illness accounts for the majority of episodes of illness in children under five years of age and is the age group with the highest consultation rate in general practice in the UK. The number of children presenting to emergency care is also steadily increasing, having risen beyond pre-pandemic numbers. Such high, and increasing, rates of consultation have prompted concerns about parents’ level of knowledge and confidence in caring for their children when they are ill, and particularly when and how to seek help appropriately. Aim: The ASK SNIFF collaboration research programme identified parents’ need for accurate and accessible information to help them know when to seek help for a sick child in 2010. This paper presents the resulting programme of research which aimed to co-develop an evidence-based safety netting intervention (mobile app) to help parents know when to seek help for an acutely ill child under the age of five years in the UK. Methods: Our programme used a collaborative six step process with 147 parent and 324 health professional participants over a period of six years including: scoping existing interventions, systematic review, qualitative research, video capture, content identification and development, consensus methodology, parent and expert clinical review. Results: Our programme has produced evidence-based content for an app supported by video clips. Our collaborative approach has supported every stage of our work, ensuring that the end result reflects the experiences, perspectives and expressed needs of parents and the clinicians they consult. Conclusion: We have not found any other resource which has used this type of approach, which may explain why there is no published evaluation data demonstrating the impact of existing UK resources. Future mobile apps should be designed and developed with the service users for whom they are intended.
AB - Background: Acute illness accounts for the majority of episodes of illness in children under five years of age and is the age group with the highest consultation rate in general practice in the UK. The number of children presenting to emergency care is also steadily increasing, having risen beyond pre-pandemic numbers. Such high, and increasing, rates of consultation have prompted concerns about parents’ level of knowledge and confidence in caring for their children when they are ill, and particularly when and how to seek help appropriately. Aim: The ASK SNIFF collaboration research programme identified parents’ need for accurate and accessible information to help them know when to seek help for a sick child in 2010. This paper presents the resulting programme of research which aimed to co-develop an evidence-based safety netting intervention (mobile app) to help parents know when to seek help for an acutely ill child under the age of five years in the UK. Methods: Our programme used a collaborative six step process with 147 parent and 324 health professional participants over a period of six years including: scoping existing interventions, systematic review, qualitative research, video capture, content identification and development, consensus methodology, parent and expert clinical review. Results: Our programme has produced evidence-based content for an app supported by video clips. Our collaborative approach has supported every stage of our work, ensuring that the end result reflects the experiences, perspectives and expressed needs of parents and the clinicians they consult. Conclusion: We have not found any other resource which has used this type of approach, which may explain why there is no published evaluation data demonstrating the impact of existing UK resources. Future mobile apps should be designed and developed with the service users for whom they are intended.
KW - Acute childhood illness
KW - Co-development
KW - Medical informatics
KW - mHealth
KW - Mobile apps
KW - Parents
KW - Safety netting
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85190843529&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2024.105459
DO - 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2024.105459
M3 - Article
C2 - 38640593
AN - SCOPUS:85190843529
SN - 1386-5056
VL - 187
JO - International Journal of Medical Informatics
JF - International Journal of Medical Informatics
M1 - 105459
ER -