Do parents benefit from the offer of a follow-up appointment after their child's admission to intensive care?: an exploratory randomised controlled trial

Abstract

The study aim was to evaluate the psychological impact on parents of the provision of a paediatric intensive care follow-up clinic. Exploratory randomised controlled trial. Families were allocated to intervention (follow-up clinic appointment two months after discharge) or control (no appointment) condition. An eight-bed Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in an inner city teaching hospital. Parents' baseline stress was assessed using the Parental Stressor Scale: PICU. Post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression were assessed at five months using the Impact of Event Scale and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Only 18/72 families (25%) in the intervention group chose to attend the clinic. Outcome data were provided by 55/82 parents in the intervention group and 50/72 in the control group. Although no significant differences were found between the groups as a whole, parents with higher baseline stress reported lower rates of post-traumatic stress (n=8/32(25%) vs. n=13/23(57%), p=0.018) and depression (n=6/32(19%) vs. n=12/23(52%), p=0.009) at five months if they had been offered an appointment than if they had not. Whilst these results do not justify routine follow-up for all, they suggest that, for the most traumatised parents, rates of long-term distress could be reduced by this intervention.