“How to Recognize if Your Child Is Seriously Ill” During COVID-19 Lockdown: An Evaluation of Parents' Confidence and Health-Seeking Behaviors

Lim, Emma; Mistry, Ravi; Battersby, Alexandra; Dockerty, Kerry; Koshy, Aaron; Chopra, Michelle N; Carey, Matthew C.; Latour, Jos M.

doi:10.3389/fped.2020.580323

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Together, these results indicate that safety netting information, to help parents determine the severity of their child's illness and whether or not they need to seek medical help, is still not easily available in a reliable form for parents, repeating earlier findings 8,39 . Lim et al 40 trialled a leaflet on the recognition of serious illness in children during the lockdown in the North East of England and found that parents felt it increased their confidence, although few had used the leaflet for a sick child. Mobile apps available in this area were not referred to by parents completing our survey.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Caring for a sick or injured child during the COVID‐19 pandemic lockdown in 2020 in the UK: An online survey of parents' experiences

Neill

Carter

Jones

et al. 2021

Health Expectations

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundDuring the COVID‐19 pandemic, the first UK lockdown (March to May 2020) witnessed a dramatic reduction in children presenting to primary/emergency care, creating concern that fear of the virus was resulting in children presenting late.MethodsAn online survey was co‐developed with UK parents to understand the impact of the lockdown on parents' help‐seeking for, and care of, their sick/injured child(ren). The survey was advertised through social media and snowballing to parents whose children had been ill/injured during the lockdown. Analysis used descriptive statistics, SPSSv25 and thematic analysis.ResultsThe survey was fully completed by 198 UK parents. The majority asked for help (144/198): from their family doctor (78), national helplines (48) or an Emergency Department (23). Most reported that their decision‐making had not changed, although how they sought help had changed. A few parents reported that the severity and duration of illness had increased because of uncertainty about and/or difficulty accessing services. Parents did not always report seeking help for symptoms rated red or amber by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Parents reported accessing information through the internet or using information that they already had.Parent ContributionThis was a collaboration with parents from survey development to dissemination, with two parents being integral members of our research team.ConclusionsOur questionnaire was completed by parents who were not deterred from seeking help for their sick or injured children. Even for these parents, the lockdown changes to services created uncertainty about, and barriers to, accessing medical help for their children.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Caring for a sick or injured child during the COVID‐19 pandemic lockdown in 2020 in the UK: An online survey of parents' experiences

Neill

Carter

Jones

et al. 2021

Health Expectations

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In addition, many studies also noticed the change in the incidence of bacterial pneumonia during the COVID-19 pandemic( Amin-Chowdhury et al, 2021 , Brueggemann et al, 2021 , Chan et al, 2021 , Chao and Lai, 2022 , Danino et al, 2021 , Fujita, 2021 , Zhang et al, 2021a ). For example, S.pneumoniae is the most common pathogen of community-acquired pneumonia, but the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease significantly declined during this pandemic( Chan et al, 2021 , Huh et al, 2021 , Juan et al, 2021 , Lim R. H. et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of COVID-19-targeted nonpharmaceutical interventions on children's respiratory admissions in China: a national multicenter time series study

Wang

Xu²,

Chu³

et al. 2022

International Journal of Infectious Diseases

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Previous studies have identified gaps in the ways that parents make decisions about seeking emergency-healthcare for children, with one group producing a patient-information leaflet to address this problem [10]. Hesitancy in seeking healthcare during Covid-19 has been previously described in children with cancer [11] and in the general population.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why did the children stop coming? Reasons for paediatric emergency department attendance decrease during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom: A qualitative study

Breckons

Thorne

Walsh

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: To explore parents' experiences and views relating to their use of children's emergency healthcare services during the Covid-19 pandemic. Design: Qualitative telephone interview study using in-depth interviews, based on the principles of grounded theory. Recorded, transcribed verbatim, managed in NVivo version 12, analysed by thematic analysis. Setting: North East England, United Kingdom. Participants: Parents of children aged 0-8 years. Findings: Three major themes emerged from the interview data: Risk to children and families, Sources of Information, and Making Healthcare-seeking Decisions. These themes encompassed a range of intellectual and emotional responses in the way that parents interpreted information related to Covid-19, and their sense of responsibility towards family and wider society. Conclusions: Together these themes aid understanding of the changes in paediatric emergency department attendances reported in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK. The analysis suggests that public health messaging directed at those seeking urgent care for children may be inadequate and lead to adverse consequences, the impacts of which require further study and refinement.

show abstract

“How to Recognize if Your Child Is Seriously Ill” During COVID-19 Lockdown: An Evaluation of Parents' Confidence and Health-Seeking Behaviors

Cited by 13 publications

References 23 publications

Caring for a sick or injured child during the COVID‐19 pandemic lockdown in 2020 in the UK: An online survey of parents' experiences

Caring for a sick or injured child during the COVID‐19 pandemic lockdown in 2020 in the UK: An online survey of parents' experiences

Effects of COVID-19-targeted nonpharmaceutical interventions on children's respiratory admissions in China: a national multicenter time series study

Why did the children stop coming? Reasons for paediatric emergency department attendance decrease during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom: A qualitative study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About