Effectiveness of a mHealth Application as a Family Supportive Tool in Pediatric Otolaryngology Perioperative Process

Summary

Tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy are common surgeries in children. Authors report how distressed children and their families are by perioperative processes. Fear of the unknown can put a strain on the preoperative period, while pain and other possible complications such as fever, vomiting, restricted oral feeding or bleeding can create difficulties in postoperative home management. Parental anxiety has been found to worsen the perception of pain, perioperative discomfort and recovery of operated children. Providing children and families with preparation for hospitalisation, surgery and postoperative home management has been shown to improve perioperative outcomes. However, not all individuals can understand and benefit from the information provided by healthcare professionals: higher levels of anxiety in the perioperative process have been associated with individuals with low health literacy. Furthermore, unmet information needs may lead parents to expose themselves to health-related misinformation through autonomous investigations on the Web and common social media resources. Patient- and family-centred education and support is a complex and time-consuming care practice, while some surgeries such as tonsillectomy are characterised by short hospitalisations that limit the amount of time health professionals can devote to this programme. Health systems have been testing different types of formats, content and ways of delivering health information/education in order to meet the requirements of clients, time availability and effectiveness. MHealth apps in particular are an essential element of e-health and consist of medical information that is available via mobile phones or other wireless devices and can be used by patients or health professionals. Their use is growing and evolving into a variety of functionalities and positive outcomes related to improving the wellbeing of individuals, including diagnostics and clinical decision-making; interventions on healthy behaviours and lifestyles; patient disease management and self-care. Findings from literature highlight the need for further randomised controlled trials to confirm positive results.

Conditions

• TONSILLECTOMY

Interventions

OTHER

M-HEALTH APP

The intervention group will have in use a mHealth App for education and support of caregivers of children undergoing tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy in the perioperative process. An out-patient nurse will be in charge of instructing intervention group participants to mHealth App use and content options. The mHealth App will be available for intervention group families from the day of pre-admission visits to the 7th day post surgery or follow up visit.

OTHER

Standard Care

The control group will receive information and education provided by nurses and physician in the preoperative visits and during hospitalization. Information and education will be provided orally or through printed booklets.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• IRCCS Burlo Garofolo

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Andrea Cassone, RN, BSN MES · Institute for Maternal and Child Health IRCCS Burlo Garofolo

• Raffaella Dobrina, RN, BSN MES · Institute for Maternal and Child Health IRCCS Burlo Garofolo

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

2 Years

Max Age

10 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-12-16

Primary Completion

2024-11-30

Completion

2024-12-31

Countries

• Italy

Study Locations