Putting children first: Understanding caregivers' and children's perspectives on the usability of oral and respiratory administration devices for paediatric medication

Abstract

A multi-national online survey was developed to obtain feedback on users' experiences of administration devices for oral and inhaled paediatric medicines. The questionnaire was divided into two identical parts: 1) for caregivers looking after children aged 0-18 years, and 2) for children aged 10 years and above, with parental consent. Each part of the questionnaire consisted of a section regarding oral devices and the other about respiratory devices. All data were anonymous and handled and stored in compliance with GDPR. Ethics approval (REC4612-016) was obtained. The study involved eight countries: Albania, Italy, Israel, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, UK, and USA. A total of 206 adults and 43 children agreed to take part in the survey. Oral dosage forms were more used than inhaled medicines. For oral liquid medicines, oral syringe was the device mostly used by European and Israeli participants. Measuring spoon was the second most common device used, and was also often used in the USA. For respiratory devices, manually actuated and breath actuated metered dose inhalers were the most common everywhere. All devices were deemed easy to use by most of respondents and instructions clear. However, a recurrent suggestion was to simplify device instructions by adding explanatory images and to summarise or highlight key points. Moreover, respondents proposed other improvements related to device appearance and design that would make the device more acceptable for them to use. Understanding paediatric patients and caregivers' experiences about oral and respiratory devices is key to provide industry with information that can help improve the use and acceptability of administration devices. Aspects that device suppliers and healthcare professionals would need to prioritise are the provision of simpler instructions in the form of images and key summaries, and to provide adequate training on device use. These improvements are essential to ensure that children and caregivers are able to use the device appropriately.

Keywords: Administration; Devices; Inhaled medicines; Oral medicines; Paediatric; Survey.