Caregivers’ education vs rhinopharyngeal clearance in children with upper respiratory infections: impact on children’s health outcomes

• Autor(a) principal: Alexandrino, Ana Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Santos, Rita, Melo, Cristina, Mesquita Bastos, José, Postiaux, Guy
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/22581
• topic: Health education; Health impact assessment; Respiratory disorders; Children; Nasal irrigation; Rhinopharyngeal clearance

Upper Respiratory Tract Infections (URTI) are very common in children having no effective pharmacological treatment. This study aimed to compare the effect of caregivers’ health education regarding children’s respiratory infections and the effect of a rhinopharyngeal clearance protocol in children with URTI. A factorial trial was conducted in 138 children up to 3 years, attending day-care centres. Children were distributed into four groups: control group (CG) (n = 38); education group (EG) (n = 34); intervention group (IG) (n = 35); and education and intervention group (E + IG) (n = 31). A Diary of Records was kept by caregivers during 1 month. There were significant differences between groups concerning: Lower Respiratory Tract Infections (CG = 29.4%; EG = 10.7%; IG = 3.8%; E + IG = 0.0%; p = 0.014); acute otitis media (CG = 32.4%; EG = 7.1%; IG = 11.5%; E + IG = 7.7%; p = 0.014); medical consultations (CG = 70.6%; EG = 42.9%; IG = 38.5%; E + IG = 30.8%; p = 0.021); antibiotics (CG = 44.1%; EG = 7.1%; IG = 23.1%; E + IG = 15.4%; p = 0.006); days missed from day-care (CG = 55 days; EG = 22 days; IG = 14 days; E + IG = 6 days; p = 0.020); days missed from employment (CG = 31 days; EG = 20 days; IG = 5 days; E + IG = 1 day; p = 0.021); and nasal clearance techniques (CG = 41.4%; EG = 78.6%; IG = 57.7%; E + IG = 84.6%; p = 0.011).