Tag: cough

Caring for children with cough: co-designing information that parents really need

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By Dr Christie Cabral, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol

When a child develops a cough, parents often find themselves in a whirlwind of worry and uncertainty. Is this normal? Should I call the doctor? Could it be something serious? These questions are common and understandable.

Infectious illnesses, like respiratory infections that cause coughs, are among the most frequent reasons for childhood visits to the GP. While the vast majority of coughs in children get better without the need for any medical treatment, a very small number could be serious.

The challenge lies in helping parents distinguish between what’s normal and what needs to be checked by a GP. This is what we set out to do when creating the Caring for children with coughs materials.

Why we needed better information

Parents said they found most of the existing NHS resources on what to … Read more

What are the causes of unnecessary antibiotic prescribing?

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By Christie Cabral, Research Fellow, Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol

Why do parents seeking evaluation, reassurance and information about their child’s cough end up with antibiotics from their GP? Research fellow Christie Cabral looks at the evidence.

GPs see a lot of children with respiratory tract infections (RTIs), usually presenting with a cough, high temperature or both. RTIs can be distressing and disruptive for children and parents but are mostly viral illnesses that will get better on their own: there is little that a GP can do to treat them.

However, many are prescribed unnecessary antibiotics that can lead to resistant bacteria. From our previous research, we know that parents often feel uncertain about the severity of an RTI and feel that it’s safer to consult a doctor.

They are usually seeking a medical evaluation, reassurance and information to help them understand and … Read more

What’s normal in children’s respiratory infections? Bristol parents helped us find out

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by Dr Emma Anderson
Senior Research Associate
Centre for Academic Primary Care

As any parent knows, children get coughs, colds and ear infections all the time. Symptoms of these respiratory infections – including runny nose, cough and sore throat – can seem never-ending.

In the EEPRIS Study, led by Professor Alastair Hay from the University of Bristol’s Centre for Academic Primary Care, we recruited parents across Bristol to tell us about their children’s respiratory symptoms as they became ill. Gathering information in the community means we are able to find out more about common respiratory illnesses than when we study those who have decided to consult their GP. It also gives us a more accurate picture of how likely parents are to consult for these common illnesses, something which has been surprisingly unclear.

Two of our main findings were that:

  • it takes up to three weeks for most
… Read more

How gut feeling guides clinician treatment decisions and why it’s not always enough

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by Sophie Turnbull
PhD Student
Centre for Academic Primary Care

 

Clinician intuition and gut feelings are often talked about in health care but are largely mysterious. Clinicians describe just knowing that there was something wrong with a patient but not exactly how they came to that conclusion.

In a recent study we aimed to unpick how clinicians form their gut feelings, how they use them to influence treatment decisions, and whether their gut feeling was good at predicting whether a child with infectious cough would get sicker in the 30 days after seeing them.

Using gut feeling to predict outcome in children with infectious cough

Infectious cough in children is the most common problem managed by health services internationally.  Although the majority of children get better on their own, a small proportion end up hospital with a serious illness. Clinicians do not always find it easy to establish … Read more

Why are so many children given antibiotics for a cough?

Posted on by capcbristol

Christie CabralBy Dr Christie Cabral
Research Associate
Centre for Academic Primary Care

When I first started researching infectious cough in children, lots of clinicians told me they couldn’t understand why so many parents brought in children who were well enough to turn the consulting room upside down before they even started the examination. As a parent of two young children myself, I had some idea, but as a qualitative researcher, I was keen to get a balanced view.

In the TARGET Programme* we wanted to answer two questions. Given that most coughs will get better on their own:

1) Why do so many parents consult when their child has a cough?
2) Why do so many clinicians prescribe antibiotics for children with coughs?

We conducted five qualitative studies and began to notice common themes, not just across the studies but also shared by parents and clinicians. We found normative beliefs … Read more