A Cross-Sectional Survey of Family Care Behaviors for Children with Upper Respiratory Tract Infections in China: Are There Opportunities for Improvement?

OBJECTIVE: To describe family care behaviors for children with upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) and explore related factors. DESIGN AND METHODS: Parents of children with URTIs were included in this cross-sectional study. Family care behaviors, disease-related knowledge, and parental self-efficacy were evaluated with validated measures. RESULTS: Among the 419 participants, 73.80% recognized diseases based on their children's abnormal presentation. Self-medication was the main home care measure (36.28% used only self-medication; 27.92% used both self-medication and physical cooling methods), and 36.5% received suggestions from medical professionals. All the participants took their children to the hospital, and 28.20% did so two or three times. The proportions of visits to level II or III hospitals were 49.64% and 83.87% for first and third hospital visits, respectively. Parents who had less disease knowledge and assessed children' diseases as more serious took their children to the hospital more often (p < 0.05); those whose nearest medical institution was a community health center were more likely to visit such centers (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Most of the parents recognized symptoms of URTIs and provided home care but lacked enough knowledge and professional support to take reasonable measures. Hospital visits were their primary choice. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Family care behaviors for children with URTIs could be improved through health education, and an internet nursing service or family doctor system is suggested. A hierarchical medical system is necessary to reduce hospital visits, as are more community health centers with pediatric services.

Methods of Gastric Tube Placement Verification in Neonates, Infants, and Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

INTRODUCTION: The objective was to evaluate diagnostic performance of multiple methods used to assess gastric tube placement verification in neonates, infants, and children. METHODS: A systematic review using the methods outlined in the Cochrane Handbook for Reviews of Diagnostic Test Accuracy was conducted. Eight databases were searched. Studies on neonates, infants, and children in which researchers compared different methods for gastric tube placement verification with x-ray reference standard were eligible in the review. RESULTS: Eight studies involving 911 participants that evaluated 9 index tests for gastric tube placement verification were included. Most studies were of moderate methodological quality, and most index tests were assessed in small individual studies. pH testing with cutoff values ≤ 6 for gastric tube position confirmation was the only index test subjected to meta-analysis, with the summary sensitivity and specificity being 0.77 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.56-0.90) and 0.42 (95% CI 0.16-0.73). Other tests for gastric tube placement verification showed great variations in sensitivities and specificities. DISCUSSION: pH ≤ 6 is not sufficiently accurate to be recommended for gastric tube placement verification in neonates, infants, and children. Diagnostic performance of pH ≤ 4 or 5 and other methods cannot be determined because of the paucity of data and methodological variations in studies. Clinical practice related to the diagnostic tests used will continue to be dictated by local preferences and cost factors, until stronger evidence becomes available.