Helping parents know when to seek help for an acutely ill child: Evidence based co-development of a mobile phone app using complex intervention methodology

Sarah Neill; Natasha Bayes; Matthew Thompson; Caroline Croxson; Damian Roland; Monica Lakhanpaul

doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2024.105459

Helping parents know when to seek help for an acutely ill child: Evidence based co-development of a mobile phone app using complex intervention methodology

Int J Med Inform. 2024 Apr 16:187:105459. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2024.105459. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Sarah Neill¹, Natasha Bayes², Matthew Thompson³, Caroline Croxson⁴, Damian Roland⁵, Monica Lakhanpaul⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK. Electronic address: sarah.neill@plymouth.ac.uk.
² Faculty of Health, University of Northampton, Northampton, UK. Electronic address: natasha.bayes@northampton.ac.uk.
³ Department of Family Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, USA. Electronic address: mjt@uw.edu.
⁴ Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, UK. Electronic address: caroline.croxson@hmc.ox.ac.uk.
⁵ Paediatric Emergency Medicine Leicester Academic (PEMLA) Group, Children's Emergency Department, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester, UK; SAPPHIRE Group, Health Sciences, Leicester University, Leicester, UK. Electronic address: dr98@leicester.ac.uk.
⁶ UCL Population, Policy and Practice Research and Teaching Department, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, London WC1N 1EH, UK; Community Paediatrics, Whittington Health NHS, London N19 5NF, UK. Electronic address: m.lakhanpaul@ucl.ac.uk.

PMID: 38640593
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2024.105459

Abstract

Background: Acute illness accounts for the majority of episodes of illness in children under five years of age and is the age group with the highest consultation rate in general practice in the UK. The number of children presenting to emergency care is also steadily increasing, having risen beyond pre-pandemic numbers. Such high, and increasing, rates of consultation have prompted concerns about parents' level of knowledge and confidence in caring for their children when they are ill, and particularly when and how to seek help appropriately.

Aim: The ASK SNIFF collaboration research programme identified parents' need for accurate and accessible information to help them know when to seek help for a sick child in 2010. This paper presents the resulting programme of research which aimed to co-develop an evidence-based safety netting intervention (mobile app) to help parents know when to seek help for an acutely ill child under the age of five years in the UK.

Methods: Our programme used a collaborative six step process with 147 parent and 324 health professional participants over a period of six years including: scoping existing interventions, systematic review, qualitative research, video capture, content identification and development, consensus methodology, parent and expert clinical review.

Results: Our programme has produced evidence-based content for an app supported by video clips. Our collaborative approach has supported every stage of our work, ensuring that the end result reflects the experiences, perspectives and expressed needs of parents and the clinicians they consult.

Conclusion: We have not found any other resource which has used this type of approach, which may explain why there is no published evaluation data demonstrating the impact of existing UK resources. Future mobile apps should be designed and developed with the service users for whom they are intended.

Keywords: Acute childhood illness; Co-development; Medical informatics; Mobile apps; Parents; Safety netting; mHealth.