An interdisciplinary intervention for children with complex health complaints; a feasibility study of selection criteria

BackgroundThere is a need for re-designing the health service for children suffering from complex and compound health complaints. Based on a previous register study, we have developed criteria to select patients with complex health complaints eligible for an Intervention with an interdisciplinary professional team. The team consists of a pediatrician, a psychologist and a physiotherapist.MethodTo identify children with complex health complaints who would benefit from this intervention, we have selected a group of patients by using a set of criteria consisting of the following criteria: multi-referred young school age children referred to both mental health service and pediatric service. This study focuses on the feasibility of these criteria by measuring participation and compliance and by gathering feedback from the team members in the interdisciplinary team.ResultsAmong 677 children aged 6−12 years referred to a regional hospital, we found 32 (5%) children eligible for the interdisciplinary Intervention according to the applied criteria. Only 6% of the invited parents declined to participate in the intervention. According to the interdisciplinary team, the intervention was found suitable for 88% of the children.ConclusionThe suggested criteria seemed feasible, in terms of identifying eligible patients for this interdisciplinary Intervention for children with complex health complaints.Clinical Trial RegistrationRetrospectively registered on www.clinicaltrials.gov, ID NCT04652154, on the 3rd of December 2020

Prenatal and Neonatal Factors Predicting Sleep Problems in Children Born Extremely Preterm or With Extremely Low Birthweight

Objective: Prematurely born children have been reported to have more sleep problems throughout childhood than children born at term. The aim of this study was to explore if prenatal or neonatal factors can predict sleep problems at age 11 years in children born extremely preterm (EPT).Method: A prospective observational study of all infants who were born EPT in Norway in 1999 and 2000. Prenatal and neonatal data were collected by all Norwegian obstetric and pediatric departments. Parental questionnaire mapped sleep problems and sleep habits at the age of 11 years.Results: Of the 372 eligible children, 221 participated. Of those, 28.1% snored, 27.5% had difficulty falling asleep or frequent awakenings and 17.2% suffered from daytime sleepiness. The mean sleep duration was 9.4 h (range 4.3–11.0 h). Smoking in pregnancy predicted snoring (odds ratio 4.3). Neonatal cerebral hemorrhage and being born small for gestational age predicted difficulty falling asleep or frequent awakenings (odds ratio 2.2 and 2.3). Other morbidities during pregnancy or the newborn period, gestational age or the burden of treatment in the neonatal intensive care unit did not predict sleep problems. None of the studied prenatal or neonatal factors predicted daytime sleepiness or sleep duration <9 h.Conclusion: Of numerous prenatal and neonatal factors, only smoking during pregnancy, being born small for gestational age and cerebral hemorrhage predicted sleep problems at 11 years of age among these children born EPT