Videos and Simple Text to Empower Parents to Handle Their Sick Children

Summary

Background:

The Medical Helpline 1813 (Capital Region, Denmark) handles acute, non-life-threatening medical emergencies. Approx. 200,000 calls/year concern children (ref: Rasmussen et al), and about 30% are referred to a pediatric urgent care center. However, many of these children presents very mild symptoms, which require neither treatment nor paraclinical tests, merely parental guidance.

We want to empower the parents when handling their sick children by videos and simple text accessible from their smartphone. We want the parents to handle mild symptoms at home and to know when they must contact the medical helpline 1813 or a general practitioner.

We have produced 8 short videos and simple texts about the most common symptoms in sick children. The material covers about 70% of the symptoms in acute sick children. The material is developed in collaboration between pediatricians and professional movie producers and is approved by the Danish Society of Pediatrics and other relevant medical societies.

Purpose:

It will be studied if the new material about symptoms in sick children result in 5% higher parental self-efficacy among the parents who were allowed to watch the material.

Moreover, it will be studied if the new material resulted in less children examined by a doctor, and satisfied parents.

Method:

Parents who call the medical helpline about a medically ill child aged 6 months to 12 years will be offered to try the new material. If they accept, every second parent will be allowed given access to the new material, and every other parent will receive the usual triage by telephone. The results of these otherwise similar groups will be compared. Parents answer surveys about their experiences.

Yield:

Videos and simple text may empower parents to handle their sick children. The study may result in fewer children referred to hospitals, more appropriate use of resources and better experiences for the families.

Conditions

• Pediatrics
• Efficacy, Self
• Triage

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Intervention Group

Empowerment of parents. When calling the medical helpline 1813 the parents will be offered to access the new material about sick children, compared to not getting this possibility.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre

  collaborator OTHER

• Copenhagen University Hospital at Herlev

  collaborator OTHER

• Rigshospitalet, Denmark

  collaborator OTHER

• Copenhagen University Hospital Bispebjerg

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Hospital of Bornholm, Denmark

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Copenhagen

  collaborator OTHER

• Copenhagen University Hospital Nordsjælland

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• TrygFonden, Denmark

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• Region Headquarters, Copenhagen (Regionsgården, Region Hovedstaden)

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Emergency Medical Services, Capital Region, Denmark

  lead OTHER_GOV

Principal Investigators

• Dina Cortes, MD, DrMedSci · Department of Pediatrics, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

6 Months

Max Age

143 Months

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-09-28

Primary Completion

2021-12-13

Completion

2021-12-13

Countries

• Denmark

Study Locations