Hospital Admissions in Children Aged 3 Months to 5 Years Presenting With Fever to the Emergency Department

Fever Clinical Trial

Official title:

Evaluation of Medical and Non-medical Factors Associated With Admission of Children Aged 3 Months to 5 Years Presenting to the Urban Paediatric Emergency Department With Febrile Illness in the United Kingdom and in Switzerland

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT01196793
• Other study ID #: SMH 24062010 V1 4
• Status: Completed
• Start date: April 30, 2012
• Est. completion date: July 3, 2014

Study information

• Verified date: September 2019
• Source: Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Observational

Clinical Trial Summary

This study primarily aims to describe factors associated with hospitalisation of children aged 3 months to 5 years presenting with fever to an urban paediatric A&E departments by describing and analysing characteristics both of those patients admitted to hospital and those managed in the community. To complement this, information on the short-term healthcare utilization by families attending the emergency department because of feverish illness will be collected. The study will be carried out in one participating centre in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, respectively, to enable a head to head comparison of the assessment and admission practices in two European countries. The resulting data will be used as the basis for further research in this area and will provide information on how to optimally structure service provision in acute febrile childhood illness.

Description:

A significant number of children 0 to 5 years of age are seen in paediatric Accident & Emergency departments (A&E) with feverish illness. Most of these patients could safely be managed in a primary care setting, particularly with guidelines in place on how to optimally assess these children. Some patients, however, will require admission, either because of a potentially serious underlying disease or because of other factors, for example parental concern or difficulties in communication because of language barriers. An increase in the number of children attending A&E departments with feverish illness as well as a rise in the volume of admissions has been noted over time. To enable an appropriate adaptation of acute medical services for children an in depth understanding of the assessment and admission processes is crucial.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 108
• Est. completion date: July 3, 2014
• Est. primary completion date: July 3, 2014
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 3 Months to 5 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Child aged 3months to 5years

• Temperature above or equal to 38°C measured by any method or reported hot by parents

Exclusion Criteria:

• none

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Emergencies
• Fever

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Switzerland	University Children's Hospital	Zurich
United Kingdom	St Mary's Hospital, Imperial NHS Hospitals Trust	London

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Countries where clinical trial is conducted

Switzerland,  United Kingdom, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Number of Participants With Admission to Hospital Due to Parental High Levels of Worry	Interview with the patient family to evaluation of the reasons for admission to emergency department	7-10 days