Parental concerns for the child with febrile convulsion: long-term effectsof educational interventions

Objective - To evaluate long-term effects of educational interventions on p arental concerns for children with febrile convulsions (FC). Subjects and m ethods - 209 FC parents were recruited from southern Taiwan, and assigned i nto program or pamphlet groups by their choices. A questionnaire was used t o examine the parental concerns at 4 time points: prior to the intervention s, 3 months, 1 year, and 2 years after the interventions. Results - The con cern scores were high before the interventions. Parents concerned that thei r child is apt to get a fever, has further seizures in the night, that FC r esults in potential brain damage and is life threatening. After interventio ns the concern scores were significantly lower for the program group than f or the pamphlet group. The educational program was the most significant fac tor that influenced the change in parental concerns. The recurrence of FC d id not significantly influence the change in the concern trajectory in the program group but showed a significant difference in the pamphlet group. Co nclusion - FC parental concerns decreased as time passed particularly in th e program group. The educational program was the significant factor that in fluenced the change of concern trajectories, and the recurrent/non-recurren t factor influenced the change of concern only in pamphlet group. FC parent al concerns should be assessed, and information given combined with emotion al support.