OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that predict good adherence to health regimens by adolescents with diabetes (insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus). METHODS: Altogether, 300 individuals aged 13-17 years were randomly…
OBJECTIVE: To examine unmet needs among families of children with chronic health conditions treated in primary care settings and to identify predictors of these needs. METHOD: Primary care physicians referred 83 caregivers of children with chronic…
Transition is a generic issue for subspecialties dealing with chronic illness and has received little attention to date. Transfer to adult care occurs at the end of a transition process that must be individualised for each patient and takes into…
OBJECTIVE: To review all the prophylactic pharmacological treatments for chronic daily headache from the past decade. BACKGROUND: Chronic daily headache is among the most common diagnoses seen in specialized headache centers. Prior to 1988, there…
Caring for children who have a chronic life-limiting illness can be emotionally and physically challenging. Just as families may struggle with whether they are making the right decisions, care providers struggle with whether they are giving the right…
CONTEXT: There is very little general evidence to support the clinical management, particularly diagnosis, of medically unexplained chronic pain (UCP) in children. OBJECTIVE: We sought to assess in children with UCP if clinical characteristics held…
BACKGROUND: The role of psycho-educational interventions in facilitating adaptation to chronic disease has received growing recognition and is in keeping with policy developments advocating greater involvement of patients in their own care. The…
Quality end-of-life care includes the management of distressing symptoms; provisions of care, including the assessment and management of psychosocial and spiritual needs; and respite from diagnosis through death and bereavement. Meeting the…
SCOPE OF THE REPORT: This report is concerned with the evaluation of measures broadly designed to measure quality of life (QoL) in children and adolescents, either by self-report or proxy raters. Four research questions were identified: (1) To what…
Objective: To evaluate whether racial and socioeconomic inequities in pediatric palliative care utilization extend to children with high-intensity neurologic impairment (HI-NI), which is a chronic neurological diagnosis resulting in substantial…
1. The management of chronic pain should be directed by the underlying cause of the pain. Whatever the cause, the primary goal of patient care should be symptom control. 2. Opioid treatment should be considered for both continuous neuropathic and…
Examining reported costs for Children with Medical Complexity (CMCs) is essential because costing and resource utilization studies influence policy and operational decisions. Our objectives were to (1) examine how authors identified CMCs in…
The purpose of this article is to analyze the resilience of the nursing staff in providing care for children and adolescents with chronic diseases, including coping with their deaths. The participants of this qualitative research were nursing…
Background: Pediatric palliative care (PPC) aims to improve quality of life for patients with life-limiting diseases and complex symptoms irrespective of cure-directed therapy. Generally an early integration of PPC is recommended. This is also the…
OBJECTIVES: To assess the clinical and biochemical safety profile of long-term polyethylene glycol 3350 (PEG) therapy in children with chronic constipation and to assess pediatric patient acceptance of PEG therapy. DESIGN: Prospective observational…
Objective To review empirical studies of the efficacy of psychological interventions as adjuvanttherapies for children with pediatric diabetes, cancer, cystic fibrosis, and sickle celldisease. Methods A search was conducted for qualifying studies…
Objectives To identify pediatric patient-reported outcomes (PROs) that are associated with chronic conditions and to evaluate the effects of chronic disease activity on PROs. Study design Participants 8-24 years-old and their parents were enrolled…
BACKGROUND: Chronic neuropathic pain affects 1%-2% of the adult population and is often refractory to standard pharmacologic treatment. Patients with chronic pain have reported using smoked cannabis to relieve pain, improve sleep and improve mood.…
AIM: To analyze the use of health services for children with severe chronic diseases, seeking to identify patterns of use according to sociodemographic and clinical conditions, and to identify unmet needs of care coordination that could benefit from…
BACKGROUND: The stress levels of parents of children with chronic illness/disability who were also involved in an enteral feeding programme were examined and compared to the stress levels of parents of healthy children and parents of children with…
The death of a child can have a devastating effect on the family. The pediatrician has an important role to play in supporting the parents and any siblings still in his or her practice after such a death. Pediatricians may be poorly prepared to…
OBJECTIVES: To characterize patterns of surgery among pediatric patients during terminal hospitalizations in children's hospitals. METHODS: We reviewed patients ≤20 years of age who died among 4 424 886 hospitalizations from January 2013-December…
Objectives: * Identify parent perceptions of suffering at end of life in children with life-threatening complex chronic conditions. * Describe factors associated with child suffering at end of life. Original Research Background: Research in children…
A computer and a hand search of the literature recovered 33 papers from which 25 trials suitable for meta-analysis were identified. We compared the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioural treatments with the waiting list control and alternative…
Children with medical complexity (CMC) are patients with one or more complex chronic conditions dependent on medical technologies. In our unit (Pediatric Pulmonology and Respiratory Intermediate Care Unit, Department of Pediatrics, "Bambino Gesù"…
Introduction: The health care offered to children and adolescents with cancer has been expanded, giving space to orthothanasia and palliative care, with a comprehensive look at the subject facing the threat to the continuity of life, as well as…
In this prospective longitudinal study with a follow-up of 6 months, the course of serum concentration of C-reactive protein was measured by an ultrasensitive immunoassay in 31 patients with acute lumbosciatic pain and 41 patients with chronic low…
Chronic reflex sympathetic dystrophy is a painful, disabling disorder for which no treatment with proven effect is available. We performed a randomized trial in a 2 to 1 ratio of patients, in which 36 patients were treated with spinal cord…
Considerable research has focused on hospitalizations for ambulatory care–sensitive conditions (ACSHs), but little of that research has focused on the role played by chronic disease in ACSHs involving children or youth (C/Y). This research…
The management of pain in children with life-limiting illnesses is complex and unfortunately not often done effectively. Pain is a multidimensional symptom that can overshadow all other experiences of both the child and family. This article focuses…
OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the Impact on Sibling scale, a six-item measure of parents' perception of the effects of a child's illness on healthy siblings. METHODS: Participants were 122 parents of a child with chronic illness, developmental…
BACKGROUND: The current study was conducted to assess the safety and tolerability of a transdermal fentanyl delivery system for the relief of chronic pain in a pediatric population, and also to validate titration recommendations and conversion to…
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The transition of healthcare from pediatric to adult settings has become more significant over the past 20 years as the survival of young people with chronic illness and disability has increased and healthcare delivery has become…
This article, written by a parent of 2 youths with special health care needs and a pediatrician, builds on the Medical Home framework to give concrete examples of what physicians and families can and should do to prepare families for transition(s).…
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of tramadol hydrochloride for the treatment of chronic pain refractory to previous treatment in two pediatric patients. METHODS: Tramadol hydrochloride was administered (50 mg/day to 150 mg/day) to two…
