Factors affecting decisional conflict for parents with children enrolled in a paediatric palliative care programme.
Palliative care programmes have the potential to affect several health outcomes for children and families, including reducing decisional conflict.


METHODS
A telephone survey was conducted with 140 parents of children with life-limiting illnesses enrolled in Florida's publicly funded paediatric palliative care programme (Partners in Care: Together for Kids).


RESULTS
Multivariate results suggest that parents with less than a high school education had decisional conflict scores (DCS) that were 13 points higher (p<0.05) than parents with some college education. In addition, parents who indicated that they had recently made a decision for their children had DCS scores that were 7 points higher (p<0.05) than parents who indicated they had not.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that paediatric palliative care programmes should treat parents with lower educational levels as being particularly vulnerable and should consider allocating additional resources to them when a decision for their children is imminent.
Department of Health Outcomes and Policy, University of Florida, USA. cak@ichp.ufl.edu
Caprice
C
Knapp
Vanessa
V
Madden
Hua
H
Wang
Charlotte
C
Curtis
Phyllis
P
Sloyer
Elizabeth
E
Shenkman
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003657:Decision Making; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D020380:Needs Assessment; D010166:Palliative Care; D010290:Parents; D012944:Social Support; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult