Assessment of parents' concerns and evaluation of outcomes.
BACKGROUND
Clinical and service evaluation often fails to accommodate sufficiently to parental perspectives and priorities concerning health interventions. Although parent satisfaction questionnaires are widely used, these assess issues chosen by the researcher. Quality of life research methods, however, can assess individual priorities.


METHODS
A Schedule for Evaluation of Quality of Life was adapted to record the nature, and relative importance of parental concerns about their child before child psychiatric hospital admission. Level of concern or worry was assessed pre- and post-admission, and at 1 year follow-up, with a waiting-list control. Data were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively for individuals and groups of cases.


RESULTS
The adapted instrument was feasible and clinically useful. It did not show repeated measurement effects but was sensitive to the effects of intervention (hospital admission). Effects (reduction in levels of concern) remained evident at 1 year follow-up.


CONCLUSIONS
The instrument is brief, non-intrusive, and sensitive to change. It has utility for clinical case evaluation. It may complement satisfaction questionnaires, and has advantages over rating scales for the evaluation of treatment outcomes.
Firth
H
H
Child Adolescent and Autism Services, Prudhoe Hospital, Northumberland.
Grimes
A
A
Poppleton
H
H
Hall
R
R
Richold
P
P
D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000145:classification*; D002648:Child; D003258:Consumer Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019988:Children with Disabilities; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D010343:Patient Admission; D010351:Patient Discharge; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012107:Research Design; D014850:Waiting Lists