Behavioral Support to Parents through a Cellular-phone Website that provides the Degree of Urgency for Medical Attention of a Child

摘要

When a child suddenly falls ill, the child's family assesses if medical attention is required immediately. However, even in case of minor illnesses, it is not possible to approach a medical institution after consultation hours, and the burden on doctors from overtime-emergency medical examinations becomes a social problem. This study proposes the use of a cellular-phone website that provides information about the degree of urgency for medical attention to parents, who can choose the child's symptoms on the cellular-phone website regardless of the time or place. Therefore, through this study, parents experimentally evaluated the cellular-phone website; also, the effectiveness of this method as a behavioral support for parents was also evaluated. When an advice about the degree of urgency for a child's treatment was taken from the cellular-phone website, the parents felt relieved. Thus, the distress faced by pediatricians may change completely.