Psychosocial problems in chronically ill children

Abstract

This study concerns the psychosocial aspects of treatment for chronically ill children. The English-speaking parents of 44 children 5–13 years of age being seen at five specialty clinics at a large county hospital in Los Angeles, and their attending physicians, were the subjects in this study. The parents were interviewed concerning their expectations for the current visit, and the doctor-patient interaction was tape-recorded. Identical categories of information were abstracted from the tape recording and from a chart review of the patients' medical records. Although parents expected 76% of the psychosocial aspects of care to be covered by the doctor, only one fourth were actually discussed in the visit. These unfulfilled expectations were associated with lower satisfaction with medical care received (r=.47, p<0.01). Finally, while doctors recorded about 80% of discussions of symptoms and physical examinations in the patient's medical record, they recorded only 25% of discussion of psychosocial problems.