PARENTAL ATTITUDES TOWARD INFANT PULMONARY-FUNCTION TESTING

Infant pulmonary function tests (PFTs) have proven increasingly popula r and useful for clinical and research purposes. Informed consent requ ires accurate information on side effects. Our aim was to quantify min or side effects from a parental point of view by means of a questionna ire. The parents of 97 infants attending for PFTs were asked to comple te a simple questionnaire. Eighty-one parents (84%) returned the quest ionnaire. Forty-one percent felt that their infants were not troubled by the process of administering the sedative chloral hydrate, whereas 55% suffered mild to moderate distress. In contrast, 94% of infants we re not distressed by the actual PFTs. Similarly, 46% of parents were n ot distressed by the administration of sedative to their infant, with 49% expressing distress to a mild or moderate degree. Although 73% of parents were not distressed by watching their infants undergo the PFTs , 27% were to a mild to moderate degree. Seventy-three percent of infa nts were untroubled on waking. Seventy percent of infants had a good n ights sleep after the PFTs. The vast majority of parents (94%) were ha ppy to recommend that others allow their infants to undergo similar te sting. We noted that most problems caused by infant PFTs relate to the administration of the sedative. Most infants awake from the tests not distressed and sleep normally the following night. (C) 1998 Wiley-Lis s, Inc.