ArticleBMC family practice2005
Signs and symptoms in children with a serious infection: a qualitative study.
Article in BMC family practice, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02024282 (Validation of a Vital Signs and Symptoms Decision Tree and the Effect of a Point-of- Care CRP Test, Oxygen Saturation, a Brief Intervention and a Parent Leaflet on Diagnosing, Antibiotic Prescribing Rate and Parental Satisfaction in Acutely Ill Children in Primary Care."), which is not on this map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Validation of a Vital Signs and Symptoms Decision Tree and the Effect of a Point-of- Care CRP Test, Oxygen Saturation, a Brief Intervention and a Parent Leaflet on Diagnosing, Antibiotic Prescribing Rate and Parental Satisfaction in Acutely Ill Children in Primary Care."
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Role of Parental Concerns in the Recognition of Sepsis in Children: A Literature Review.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2019Pooled it
- Understanding parents' decisions to seek care for children with serious bacterial infections: a qualitative study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Parental Ability to Identify Severe Illnesses in Their Children.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Physicians' appraisal of parental concerns: a qualitative assessment.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
- The Measurement of Vital Signs in Pediatric Patients by Lifelight Software in Comparison to the Standard of Care: Protocol for the VISION-Junior Observational Study.JMIR research protocols · 2025Observational
- Pre-hospital symptoms associated with acute bacterial meningitis differs between children and adults.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Integrating Clinical Signs at Presentation and Clinician's Non-analytical Reasoning in Prediction Models for Serious Bacterial Infection in Febrile Children Presenting to Emergency Department.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2022Article
- Nonspecific symptoms dominate at first contact to emergency healthcare services among cases with invasive meningococcal disease.BMC family practice · 2021Observational
- Parental assessment of disease severity in febrile children under 5 years of age: a qualitative study.BMJ open · 2021Article
- Parents' concerns and beliefs about temperature measurement in children: a qualitative study.BMC family practice · 2021Article
- Value of parental concern and clinician's gut feeling in recognition of serious bacterial infections: a prospective observational study.BMC pediatrics · 2019Observational
- Development and evaluation of a hospital discharge information package to empower parents in caring for a child with a fever.BMJ open · 2018Article
- Antimicrobial and Antibiofilm Activity of Human Milk Oligosaccharides against Streptococcus agalactiae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Acinetobacter baumannii.ACS infectious diseases · 2018Article
- Which early 'red flag' symptoms identify children with meningococcal disease in primary care?The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2011Article
- Using vital signs to assess children with acute infections: a survey of current practice.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2008Article
- Signs and symptoms for diagnosis of serious infections in children: a prospective study in primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2007Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEarly diagnosis of serious infections in children is difficult in general practice, as incidence is low, patients present themselves at an early stage of the disease and diagnostic tools are limited to signs and symptoms from observation, clinical history and physical examination. Little is known which signs and symptoms are important in general practice. With this qualitative study, we aimed to identify possible new important diagnostic variables.
methodsSemi-structured interviews with parents and physicians of children with a serious infection. We investigated all signs and symptoms that were related to or preceded the diagnosis. The analysis was done according to the grounded theory approach. Participants were recruited in general practice and at the hospital.
results18 children who were hospitalised because of a serious infection were included. On average, parents and paediatricians were interviewed 3 days after admittance of the child to hospital, general practitioners between 5 and 8 days after the initial contact. The most prominent diagnostic signs in seriously ill children were changed behaviour, crying characteristics and the parents' opinion. Children either behaved drowsy or irritable and cried differently, either moaning or an inconsolable, loud crying. The parents found this illness different from previous illnesses, because of the seriousness or duration of the symptoms, or the occurrence of a critical incident. Classical signs, like high fever, petechiae or abnormalities at auscultation were helpful for the diagnosis when they were present, but not helpful when they were absent.
conclusionbehavioural signs and symptoms were very prominent in children with a serious infection. They will be further assessed for diagnostic accuracy in a subsequent, quantitative diagnostic study.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.