Parent’s Beliefs about Children’s Hospital Appointments Questionnaire
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A questionnaire study investigating parents’ beliefs about attending children’s General Paediatric hospital outpatient appointments
IRAS ID
136504
Contact name
Elaine Cameron
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Aston University
Research summary
A questionnaire study of parent’s beliefs about attending children’s hospital appointments
Despite increasing choice and reminders about hospital appointments, around 15% of outpatient appointments for children are not attended in England. These children may still need assessment and treatment, so are at risk of avoidable poor health. Missed appointments also have costs for health service finances, waiting times, and family-doctor relationships. To design effective prevention strategies and reduce the number of missed appointments we need to understand the factors that lead to non-attendance.
Previous studies have focused on factors related to hospital services (e.g. waiting times) or family characteristics (e.g. ethnicity). These studies help to predict circumstances where non-attendance is more likely, but can’t explain why it occurs. This study aims to shed light on parents’ behaviour and decision-making by measuring and classifying their beliefs about attending appointments.
A questionnaire has been designed using psychological theories indicated by an earlier interview study. Parents of all children scheduled to have a General Paediatric appointment at Birmingham Children’s Hospital or Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham in a two month period will be posted an invitation to participate, with study information, instructions, the questionnaire, and directions to an online version. This invitation package will be the only contact with participants. Filling in the questionnaire will take approximately 20 minutes, and participation will be voluntary and completely anonymous.
The findings will tell us how parents think about attending appointments and whether the questionnaire is a suitable measurement tool. We can then develop more specific theories about the relationship between beliefs and attendance, and test these theories in future studies. Evidence-based interventions can then be designed.
This study is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) CLAHRC (Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care) for Birmingham and Black Country.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - South Yorkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/YH/0297
Date of REC Opinion
29 Aug 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion