Dataset Information

Understanding parents' experiences of disease course and influencing factors: a 3-year follow-up qualitative study among parents of children with functional abdominal pain.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:Functional abdominal pain is a common symptom in children and adolescents. Three years ago, we investigated the experiences among parents whose children had chronic abdominal pain but no somatic diagnosis. The aim of the present follow-up study was to explore those families' current situations. DESIGN:Interviews with open questions about the families' current pain situations were carried out by the first author. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed, and subsequently analysed using descriptive content analysis. SETTING:Urban and rural areas in two municipalities in Southern Norway. PARTICIPANTS:Parents of children with abdominal pain who had been referred to a local hospital by their general practitioner and had been discharged without a somatic diagnosis. Fifteen parents of 14 children aged 8-17 years who had also been interviewed in 2016. RESULTS:Nine of the children had recovered from their abdominal pain. During the pain period, the parents reported frustration with not having a diagnosis nor a specific treatment for their child's abdominal pain. The siblings in some families received less attention and were afraid that something serious might happen to their sister or brother. The parents wished that their child's school cared more about the child when they had weeks of absence. All parents maintained that their child's pain was physical, although they thought that psychological aspects might have influenced the symptoms. The parents stated that they, as well as their children, needed guidance from professionals to understand the complex pain situation.

SUBMITTER: Brekke M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7462228 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Understanding parents' experiences of disease course and influencing factors: a 3-year follow-up qualitative study among parents of children with functional abdominal pain.

Brekke Mette M Brodwall Anne A

BMJ open 20200830 8

<h4>Objective</h4>Functional abdominal pain is a common symptom in children and adolescents. Three years ago, we investigated the experiences among parents whose children had chronic abdominal pain but no somatic diagnosis. The aim of the present follow-up study was to explore those families' current situations.<h4>Design</h4>Interviews with open questions about the families' current pain situations were carried out by the first author. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed, and subsequ ...[more]

PMID: 32868359

Similar Datasets

Project description:There is an increasing awareness that parents can play an important role in shaping their children's attitudes towards alcohol and use of alcohol. However, there has been little research exploring the conversations parents have with their children about alcohol. The present study aims to address this gap by exploring conversations between parents and their 15-17 year old children.Using a cross-sectional qualitative design, recruitment took place over two phases to allow a purposive maximum variation sample of parents and young people. Sixty-four participants (n =?48 parents; n =?16 young people aged 15-17 years) took part in semi-structured interviews. The sample was diverse and included participants from throughout the United Kingdom. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data separately for all parents and 16 matched parent-child pairs.The parents' findings were summarised within the following thematic areas: 1) style of conversation; 2) triggers to conversations; 3) topics conveyed during conversations; and 4) supervision of child's alcohol consumption. Most parents were comfortable talking to their children about alcohol. It was considered that open and honest conversations helped demystify alcohol for young people. Most conversations that parents had with their children were brief and informal and a wide range of triggers to these conversations were reported. There was some indication that as children got older conversations became more frequent and more focused on safety. Overall, the matched parent-child interviews were very consistent regarding levels of child drinking, conversation starters, and topics discussed. However, in some cases parents underestimated their child's need and desire for further conversations about alcohol.Most parents felt comfortable having conversations with their older children about alcohol. However, parents also wanted more support with having these conversations, particularly about how to start a conversation and what to talk about. This study provides several recommendations to help parents have an open conversation about alcohol with their children. For example, brief, informal chats seem to be the most appropriate way of speaking to children about alcohol compared to a more formal, "sit-down" style of conversation.

Project description:A meta-analysis was performed on studies employing the ventricular-brain ratio to compare schizophrenic subjects to that of normal controls. This was a follow-up to a similar meta-analysis published in 1992 in which study-, in addition to clinical-, factors were found to contribute significantly to the reported difference between patients with schizophrenia and controls. Seventy-two (N=72) total studies were identified from the peer reviewed literature, 39 from the original meta-analysis, and 33 additional studies published since which met strict criteria for inclusion and analysis - thus representing ~30 years of schizophrenia ventricular enlargement research. Sample characteristics from schizophrenics and controls were coded for use as predictor variables against within sample VBR values as well as for between sample VBR differences. Additionally, a number of factors concerning how the studies were conducted and reported were also coded. Obtained data was subjected to unweighted univariate as well as multiple regression analyses. In particular, results indicated significant differences between schizophrenics and controls in ventricular size but also the influence of the diagnostic criteria used to define schizophrenia on the magnitude of the reported VBR. This suggests that differing factors of the diagnostic criteria may be sensitive to ventricular enlargement and might be worthy of further examination. Interestingly, we observed an inverse relationship between VBR difference and the number of co-authors on the study. This latter finding suggests that larger research groups report smaller VBR differences and may be more conservative or exacting in their research methodology. Analyses weighted by sample size provided identical conclusions. The effects of study factors such as these are helpful for understanding the variation in the size of the reported differences in VBR between patients and controls as well as for understanding the evolution of research on complex clinical syndromes employing neuroimaging morphometrics.

Dataset Information

Understanding parents' experiences of disease course and influencing factors: a 3-year follow-up qualitative study among parents of children with functional abdominal pain.

Publications

Understanding parents' experiences of disease course and influencing factors: a 3-year follow-up qualitative study among parents of children with functional abdominal pain.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets