Embedding new technologies in practice - a normalization process theory study of point of care testing.

Background: Many point of care diagnostic technologies are available which produce results within minutes, and offer the opportunity to deliver acute care out of hospital settings. Increasing access to diagnostics at the point of care could increase the volume and scope of acute ambulatory care. Yet these technologies are not routinely used in many settings.

Point-of-care testing in UK primary care: a survey to establish clinical needs.

Background: A number of point-of-care diagnostic tests are commercially available in the UK, however, not much is known regarding GPs' desire for these tests or the clinical areas of interest.

Objective: We sought to establish for which conditions point-of-care tests (POCTs) would be most helpful to UK GPs for diagnosis, reduction of referrals, and monitoring of chronic conditions.

Methods: A total of 1635 regionally representative GPs were invited to complete an online cross-sectional survey between 31 September and 16 October 2012.

Caregivers' Experiences of Pathways to Care for Seriously Ill Children in Cape Town, South Africa: A Qualitative Investigation.

Purpose: Understanding caregivers' experiences of care can identify barriers to timely and good quality care, and support the improvement of services. We aimed to explore caregivers' experiences and perceptions of pathways to care, from first access through various levels of health service, for seriously ill and injured children in Cape Town, South Africa, in order to identify areas for improvement.

Methods: Semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted with primary caregivers of children who were admitted to paediatric intensive care or died in the health system prior to intensive care admission.

Information resources to aid parental decision-making on when to seek medical care for their acutely sick child: a narrative systematic review.

Objective: To identify the effectiveness of information resources to help parents decide when to seek medical care for an acutely sick child under 5 years of age, including the identification of factors influencing effectiveness, by systematically reviewing the literature.

Methods: 5 databases and 5 websites were systematically searched using a combination of terms on children, parents, education, acute childhood illness. A narrative approach, assessing quality via the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool, was used due to non-comparable research designs.

Missed opportunities for diagnosis: lessons learned from diagnostic errors in primary care.

Background: Because of the difficulties inherent in diagnosis in primary care, it is inevitable that diagnostic errors will occur. However, despite the important consequences associated with diagnostic errors and their estimated high prevalence, teaching and research on diagnostic error is a neglected area.

Aim: To ascertain the key learning points from GPs' experiences of diagnostic errors and approaches to clinical decision making associated with these.

Exploring Socioeconomic Differences in Bedtime Behaviours and Sleep Duration in English Preschool Children.

Children's sleep is critical for optimal health and development; yet sleep duration has decreased in recent decades, and many children do not have adequate sleep. Certain sleep behaviours ('sleep hygiene') are commonly recommended, and there is some evidence that they are associated with longer nighttime sleep. Parents of 84 British 3-year-old children were interviewed about their children's sleep and completed five-night/four-day sleep diaries documenting their children's sleep, from which daily sleep duration was estimated.

Parent's information seeking in acute childhood illness: what helps and what hinders decision making?

Context: Acute illness is a universal experience in early childhood. Parents find it difficult to determine whether or not their child requires medical care and seek information to inform their decision making. Little is known about parents' information seeking behaviour and what helps or hinders their decision making.

Parents' help-seeking behaviours during acute childhood illness at home: A contribution to explanatory theory.

Uncertainty and anxiety surround parents' decisions to seek medical help for an acutely ill child. Consultation rates for children are rising, yet little is known about factors that influence parents' help-seeking behaviours. We used focus groups and interviews to examine how 27 parents of children under five years, from a range of socioeconomic groups in the East Midlands of England, use information to make decisions during acute childhood illness at home.

Information needs of parents for acute childhood illness: determining 'what, how, where and when' of safety netting using a qualitative exploration with parents and clinicians.

Objective: To explore the views of parents and clinicians regarding the optimal content, format and delivery of safety netting information for acute childhood illness.

Design: Qualitative study including semistructured focus groups and interviews.

Setting: First contact care settings, community centres, children's centres and nurseries in the Midlands, UK.

The safety netting behaviour of first contact clinicians: a qualitative study.

Background: Acute illness is common in childhood, and it is difficult for healthcare professionals to distinguish seriously ill children from the vast majority with minor or self-limiting illnesses. Safety netting provides parents with advice on when and where to return if their child deteriorates, and it is widely recommended that parents of acutely sick young children should be given safety netting advice. Yet little is known about how and when this is given.

Primary care clinicians' attitudes towards point-of-care blood testing: a systematic review of qualitative studies.

Background: Point-of-care blood tests are becoming increasingly available and could replace current venipuncture and laboratory testing for many commonly used tests. However, at present very few have been implemented in most primary care settings. Understanding the attitudes of primary care clinicians towards these tests may help to identify the barriers and facilitators to their wider adoption.

Making sense of a new transport system: an ethnographic study of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway.

An increase in public transport use has the potential to contribute to improving population health, and there is growing interest in innovative public transport systems. Yet how new public transport infrastructure is experienced and integrated (or not) into daily practice is little understood. We investigated how the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, UK, was used and experienced in the weeks following its opening, using the method of participant observation (travelling on the busway and observing and talking to passengers) and drawing on Normalization Process Theory to interpret our data.

Could parental rules play a role in the association between short sleep and obesity in young children?

Short sleep duration is associated with obesity in young children. This study develops the hypothesis that parental rules play a role in this association. Participants were 3-year-old children and their parents, recruited at nursery schools in socioeconomically deprived and non-deprived areas of a North-East England town.

Napping in English preschool children and the association with parents' attitudes.

Background: Age-independent variability in childrens' napping duration may be influenced by parental preference and attitudes and childrens' availability or lack of opportunity to nap. Our study examined English preschool childrens' napping duration, frequency and location, and the association of daily nap duration with parents' attitudes towards napping.

Methods: Parents of three-year-old children in deprived and nondeprived areas of a town in North-East England were interviewed regarding their attitudes towards child napping and completed four-day and five night sleep diaries documenting their childrens' daytime and nighttime sleep.

Motivations for active commuting: a qualitative investigation of the period of home or work relocation.

Background: Promoting walking or cycling to work (active commuting) could help to increase population physical activity levels. According to the habit discontinuity and residential self-selection hypotheses, moving home or workplace is a period when people (re)assess, and may be more likely to change, their travel behavior. Research in this area is dominated by the use of quantitative research methods, but qualitative approaches can provide in-depth insight into the experiences and processes of travel behavior change.

Adiposity and blood pressure in 7- to 11-year-old children: comparison of British Pakistani and white British children, and of British Pakistani children of migrant and British-born mothers.

Objectives: This study tested hypotheses that: (1) levels of adiposity, as assessed by triceps and subscapular skinfold thicknesses (SFTs), and blood pressure would be higher in British Pakistani children than in white British children; and (2) British Pakistani children of mothers born in the UK would have smaller SFTs and lower blood pressure than children of mothers born in Pakistan.

Methods: Participants aged 7 to 11 years were recruited from five primary schools in a deprived urban area. BMI, waist circumference, triceps and subscapular SFT, and blood pressure were measured.