title: Does well-child care education improve consultations and medication management for childhood fever and common infections? A systematic review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Fever is common in preschool children and is often caused by benign self-limiting infections. Parents' lack of knowledge and fever phobia leads to high healthcare consumption.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To systematically review the effect of providing educational interventions about childhood fever and common infections in well-child clinics (WCCs), prior to illness episodes, on parental practices: healthcare-seeking behaviour (frequency of physician consultations, appropriateness of consultations) and medication management.
  
  
  METHODS
  Medline, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, Web of Science were searched. We included randomised controlled trials evaluating interventions in WCC settings focusing on educating parents prior to new illness episodes to improve parental practices during episodes of childhood fever and common infections. Data were extracted on study design, sample characteristics, type of intervention, outcome measures and results.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eight studies were eligible for data extraction. Educating parents, in WCCs, prior to new episodes of childhood fever and common infections reduces daytime physician consultations of parents, home visits and telephone consultations, and enhances medication management. However, single and multicomponent interventions vary in effectiveness in reducing the frequency of daytime physician consultations and differ in their potential to reduce the number of home visits and general practitioner out-of-hours contacts. Only multicomponent interventions achieved a reduction in telephone consultations and improved medication management.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Educating parents in WCCs prior to episodes of childhood fever and common infections showed potential to improve parental practices in terms of healthcare-seeking behaviour and medication management.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Kirsten K B
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Peetoom
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jacqueline J M
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Smits
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Luc J L
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Ploum
authors.affiliation: Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.|Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Jan Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Verbakel
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Geert-Jan
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Dinant
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jochen W L
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Cals
mesh_terms: D039602:After-Hours Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D058633:Antipyretics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000628:therapy; D002648:Child; D002654:Child Care; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005194:Family Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005334:Fever / Q000628:therapy*; D006701:Home Nursing; D006792:House Calls / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D058633:Antipyretics
keywords: Comm Child Health; General Paediatrics; Health services research; Infectious Diseases; Nursing Care