SynthesisBMJ open2015
Information resources to aid parental decision-making on when to seek medical care for their acutely sick child: a narrative systematic review.
Synthesis in BMJ open, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed.
- Understanding parents' decisions to seek care for children with serious bacterial infections: a qualitative study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Striving to make the right decision when seeking emergency care: patients' stories of navigating support alternatives in a digital society, a qualitative study.BMC emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Patient education involving children and their parents or caregivers: a qualitative study among nurses in Northern Ghana.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Clinical advisors at NHS 111 improve accuracy for paediatric patients and their advice is more reliably followed: a retrospective observational cohort study.Archives of disease in childhood · 2026Observational
- Identifying the needs of parents admitted to the paediatric emergency department.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Digital healthcare interventions to support parents with acutely ill children at home: A systematic review.PLOS digital health · 2025Article
- Safety netting advice for acutely ill children presenting to ambulatory care: exploring parents' opinions, ideas, and expectations through focus group interviews.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Safety netting in primary care: managing the low incidence, high uncertainty of severe illness.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
- Parents' Trigger Tool for Children with Medical Complexity - PAT-CMC: Development of a recognition tool for clinical deterioration at home.Journal of advanced nursing · 2025Article
- We're here too: child health information-seeking experiences and preferences of Red River Métis families - a qualitative study.International journal for equity in health · 2023Article
- Article
- A pre-post intervention study: Knowledge among parents about child infections and antibiotic use facilitated by maternal and child health nurses.Nursing open · 2023Article
- Understanding antibiotic-seeking behaviour: A qualitative case study of mothers of children aged 5 and under.Journal of advanced nursing · 2022Article
- Navigating uncertain illness trajectories for young children with serious infectious illness: a modified grounded theory study.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Article
- Profile of the Users and the Most Visited Topics of a Pediatric eHealth Website.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- 'Birthing a Better Future': A mixed-methods evaluation of an exhibition on the early years of life.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2021Article
- Impact of Digital Educational Interventions to Support Parents Caring for Acutely Ill Children at Home and Factors That Affect Their Use: Protocol for a Systematic Review.JMIR research protocols · 2021Article
- Exploring the Experiences and Information Needs of Parents Caring for a Child With a Urinary Tract Infection: A Qualitative Study.Journal of patient experience · 2021Article
- Parent Experiences Caring for a Child With Bronchiolitis: A Qualitative Study.Journal of patient experience · 2020Article
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.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo identify the effectiveness of information resources to help parents decide when to seek medical care for an acutely sick child under 5 years of age, including the identification of factors influencing effectiveness, by systematically reviewing the literature.
methods5 databases and 5 websites were systematically searched using a combination of terms on children, parents, education, acute childhood illness. A narrative approach, assessing quality via the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool, was used due to non-comparable research designs.
results22 studies met the inclusion criteria: 9 randomised control trials, 8 non-randomised intervention studies, 2 qualitative descriptive studies, 2 qualitative studies and 1 mixed method study. Consultation frequency (15 studies), knowledge (9 studies), anxiety/reassurance (7 studies), confidence (4 studies) satisfaction (4 studies) and antibiotic prescription (4 studies) were used as measures of effectiveness. Quality of the studies was variable but themes supported information needing to be relevant and comprehensive to enable parents to manage an episode of minor illness Interventions addressing a range of symptoms along with assessment and management of childhood illness, appeared to have the greatest impact on the reported measures. The majority of interventions had limited impact on consultation frequencies, No conclusive evidence can be drawn from studies measuring other outcomes.
conclusionsFindings confirm that information needs to be relevant and comprehensive to enable parents to manage an episode of minor illness. Incomplete information leaves parents still needing to seek help and irrelevant information appears to reduce parents' trust in the intervention. Interventions are more likely to be effective if they are also delivered in non-stressful environments such as the home and are coproduced with parents.
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Registered trials
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.