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Why Parents Seek Medical Evaluations for Their Children With Mild Acute IllnessesDepartments of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, voigt.robert{at}mayo.edu
Departments of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine
Departments of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine
Psychiatry and Psychology
Departments of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine
Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic
Department of Research, Olmsted Medical Center, Rochester, Minnesota
Departments of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine The reasons underlying parents' decisions to seek medical evaluations for their mildly ill children are not well understood. This cross-sectional study tracked parents' requests for on-site medical evaluations at a sick child care program. A logistic regression model identified factors associated with parents' decisions to seek medical evaluations for their children based on the data from parent-completed questionnaires. A convenience sample of 196 parents completed all questionnaires; 62 (31.6%) parents sought medical evaluations. Parents were more likely to seek medical evaluations if they were concerned about missing work (odds ratio = 8.6; 95% confidence interval, 3.3-22.0; P = .0001), if they smoked (odds ratio = 3.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-12.4; P = .037), or if their spouse's highest educational attainment was some high school (odds ratio = 0.4; 95% confidence interval, 0.1-1.0; P = .044). The data highlight the problems working parents have in accessing health care during usual working hours and the potential value of convenient health care programs.
Key Words: acute illness medical evaluation parents child health services health policy
This version was published on April
1, 2008 Clinical Pediatrics, Vol. 47, No. 3,
244-251 (2008) |
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