Given that reading, spelling and arithmetic skills are acquired through childhood, their development may be compromised following a childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI). The present study examined educational skills (reading accuracy, spelling and arithmetic) at a mean follow-up interval of 6.8 years post-injury in children who had sustained a mild, moderate, or severe TBI at two ages: 'Young' (age at injury: 3-7 years, n = 48) and 'Old': (age at injury: 8-12 years, n = 36). Comparisons between the young and old TBI groups resulted in inconsistent findings. While a dose-response relationship for severity was evident for the young group, this was not always the case for the old group. Significant predictors of outcome included both severity and acute intellectual function.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSSs) are common for parents of children with life-threatening illnesses or injuries. The impact of these psychological sequelae on parents' personal use of health services is unknown. The present study aimed to investigate whether PTSS severity prospectively predicts increased health service utilization (HSU), and to examine the relative importance of other predisposing and enabling factors in predicting HSU.The sample comprised 106 parents of children with various life threatening illnesses, who completed a resource use questionnaire at 19 months following their child's diagnosis or admission. HSU was assessed as reported general practitioner and psychologist visits.Parent PTSS severity at 7 months following their child's diagnosis or hospital admission predicted being in higher service utilization categories in the following 12 months; as PTSS score increased, the odds of being in higher categories increased. Hierarchical ordinal logistic regression procedures indicated predisposing and enabling factors failed to further explain HSU.These findings highlight the importance of PTSSs to HSU and are consistent with studies of samples experiencing other forms of trauma, such as war or natural disaster. Our results also suggest that an individuals' need, in terms of the severity of their PTSSs, appears most important in predicting their health service engagement. Although this is positive, the effectiveness of this service use, in terms of cost and outcomes, remains unclear. Further, despite the levels of PTSSs observed in the present sample, a minority of individuals sought psychosocial care. (PsycINFO Database Record
The aim of this study was to explore the acute psychosocial risk in families with infants undergoing surgery for a congenital heart disease and, secondarily, to explore the psychosocial impact of antenatal versus post-natal diagnoses.The study sample comprised 39 caregivers (28 mothers) of 29 children diagnosed with a congenital heart disease and requiring surgery within the first 4 weeks of life. Psychosocial risk was measured using the Psychosocial Assessment Tool, which was adapted to include four novel items examining infant risk factors, namely, sleeping, feeding, crying, and bonding difficulties. Parents' psychosocial risk was measured within 4 weeks after their child's surgery and stratified into a three-tiered framework: Universal, Targeted, and Clinical risk.Of the total sample, 61.5% of parents were classified as Universal, that is, at lowest risk; 35.9% as Targeted, and 2.6% as Clinical. The within-family parent total Psychosocial Assessment Tool score correlations were non-significant, and there were no differences between families of infants who received post-natal versus antenatal diagnosis or single ventricle versus biventricular repair. Linear regression found that a higher parent education significantly predicted a lower total Psychosocial Assessment Tool score.Findings indicate that, although the majority of parents adapt to the acute stress of surgery for a serious cardiac illness in their infant, the remaining 38.5% report an increased psychosocial risk associated with higher rates of emotional distress, which may impact on the parental quality of life and capacity for optimal parenting. The distribution of psychosocial risk in parents of children undergoing surgery for a congenital heart disease is consistent with that described for parents of children with other serious paediatric diagnoses.
Paediatric acquired brain injury (ABI) can adversely impact families, and it is widely accepted that families should be involved in the rehabilitation of children/adolescents with ABI. However, there is limited guidance about how to best involve families in paediatric ABI rehabilitation. Several programmes involving the families of children/adolescents with ABI have been developed, but there are no published reviews outlining their characteristics. This scoping literature review aimed to synthesize information about these programmes and develop an understanding of how families are involved in them. Four databases were systematically searched to identify sources of evidence that described programmes in paediatric ABI rehabilitation that involve family members. One hundred and eight sources of evidence describing 42 programmes were included. Programmes were categorized as: service coordination (n = 11), psychosocial (n = 17), support groups (n = 4), training/instruction (n = 9), and education (n = 1). Families' involvement in these programmes varied across programme development, delivery, and evaluation stages. The findings of this scoping literature review outline how families can be involved in paediatric ABI rehabilitation. While this review outlines many approaches to supporting families, it also highlights the need for models of family-centred care to better articulate how clinicians and services can involve families in paediatric ABI rehabilitation.
Abstract Objective Explore the mental health trajectories of parents following their child's life‐threatening illness/injury. Methods Participants were 217 parents (mean age: 34.9–40.0; 66 fathers) of 165 children who presented to a tertiary hospital with a life‐threatening illness/injury. Parents completed questionnaires about their mental health and psychosocial stressors within 4 weeks of the child's illness/injury (T1), and 4 months (T2), 7 months (T3), and 19 months (T4) postdiagnosis. Results For both mothers and fathers, mental health symptoms were elevated at diagnosis declining to normal levels by T3, with a pattern of increase at T4. Fathers demonstrated a faster decline in symptoms between T1 and T2, and fathers, but not mothers, experienced a relapse in depressive symptoms at T4. Fathers reported higher rates of work changes. Conclusions These findings have important implications for the design and timing of parental interventions to support families of children with life‐threatening disease/injury.
To understand the systems underlying current rehabilitation models of care used with children and youth (0-21years) who sustain traumatic brain and/or spinal cord injuries. This study gathered qualitative data on service structures, service organization, and the barriers and facilitators of service provision in selected medical rehabilitation service(s) (MRS) and community-based rehabilitation service(s) (CBRS). Informants from 11 rehabilitation services were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Interviews were analysed in NVivo using content analysis method. Experiences shared by the service representatives indicated that most services supported children and youth with brain injury, with a limited number also specializing in spinal cord injuries. MRS often delivered care in inpatient or outpatient settings, while CBRS offered home/community-based services. Care planning often started either prior to or shortly after admission from acute care settings, using either multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary teamwork models. Strengths of the services included innovation and provision of family-centred care; while challenges experienced included difficulty translating evidence into practice and poor team communication. Models of care were similar across services, with a focus on providing family-centred care. Several shared challenges were described, and service representatives expressed interest in forming partnerships and collaborations to address these challenges through innovative initiatives.
There is debate regarding the relationship between executive function and social outcome following paediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI), due to inconsistent findings in the literature. It has been suggested that these contradictory results may reflect the absence of an established mechanism to explain this relationship. Yeates and colleagues (2004) proposed a possible model in which the maturity of social problem-solving skills mediates the relationship between executive function and social outcome. The current study aimed to explore this model and determine whether social problem solving mediates the relationship between executive function and social outcome in a TBI population. The sample consisted of 36 adolescents and young adults who sustained a TBI between 8 and 12 years of age. They ranged between 16 and 22 years of age and were 7-10 years post-injury. Findings indicated that a higher level of executive dysfunction was associated with less sophisticated social problem-solving skills and poorer social outcome. Further, the maturity of social problem-solving skills was found to mediate the relationship between executive function and social outcome in this group.
Introduction Patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), aneurysmal disease (AD) or carotid atherosclerosis are at high cardiovascular risk, necessitating secondary cardiovascular protection. The aim of this study was to determine compliance with cardiovascular risk reduction guidelines in new patients referred to vascular clinics. Methods A multicentre collaborative national observational audit of new patients referred to eight tertiary general vascular clinics over a three-month period in England and Wales was conducted by the Vascular and Endovascular Research Network (VERN). Referral letters, case notes and investigations were reviewed by local investigators, and data analysed by VERN. Results A total of 656 patients were included in the study: 73.2% had PAD, 23.2% had AD and 3.7% had carotid atherosclerosis. A third (37.5%) were current smokers, two-thirds (61.7%) were on antiplatelet therapy and two-thirds (61.5%) were on statin therapy. Smoking was more prevalent in the PAD cohort (PAD 41.4%, AD 27.5%, p=0.003). However, more PAD patients were on antiplatelet therapy (PAD 63.9%, AD 53.3%, p=0.024). Both antiplatelet and statin prescription significantly increased with the number of cardiovascular risk factors. Patients with a previous cardiac or cerebrovascular history were more likely to have stopped smoking, and to be on antiplatelet and statin therapy (p<0.0001 for each). Overall, 47.3% of patients were on both antiplatelet and statin therapy, and 28.9% were on antiplatelet and statin therapy and not smoking. Conclusions This study highlights deficiencies in cardiovascular risk minimisation in patients with established vascular disease. Patients with concomitant cardiac or cerebrovascular disease were more likely to be on best medical therapy.
'/%3e%3c/defs%3e%3cpath fill='%23012169' d='M0 0h10080v5040H0z'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='.6' d='m0 0 6 3m0-3L0 3' clip-path='url(%23b)' transform='scale(840)'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23e4002b' stroke-width='.4' d='m0 0 6 3m0-3L0 3' clip-path='url(%23c)' transform='scale(840)'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='840' d='M2520 0v2520M0 1260h5040'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23e4002b' stroke-width='504' d='M2520 0v2520M0 1260h5040'/%3e%3cg fill='%23fff'%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23d' x='2520' y='3780'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' x='7560' y='4200'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' x='6300' y='2205'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' x='7560' y='840'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' x='8680' y='1869'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23e' x='8064' y='2730'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e)