Attitudes of parents towards an urban paediatric fracture clinic

SummaryPaediatric fracture clinic appointments are sometimes not kept. The attitudes of parents who play a major role are not well known. A descriptive research design using questionnaires to collect informations on parents’ attitudes was undertaken. We followed up their attendance prospectively. The questionnaire consisted mainly of three sections: socio-economic, perception of injury and clinic preferences. In addition, a section on attitudes towards research clinics was included.Over a 3 month time period, 235 new consecutive children who did not received any operative intervention presented to our fracture clinic and questionnaires were distributed to their parents. After exclusions 198 completed questionnaires (84%) were returned, with a mean age of 8.6 years (1–15 years), of which 109 were boys (55%). Upper limbs accounted for 70% (n = 138) of the injuries with the majority of patients coming from large urban or other urban areas (94%, n = 186). It was noted that it was the mother who predominately brought the child to fracture clinic (93%).Most children had to take time off from school to attend the fracture clinic (80%). If given a choice, parents were more likely to choose a clinic appointment on the same day of the week that corresponded with their first visit (p = 0.013), although most parents preferred Friday (40.4%) to any other day. Those who were employed were more likely to choose Friday or the weekends as their preferred day over weekdays (p < 0.001). Mornings (65%) were the most popular choice for parents. Mean severity of the injury as perceived by parents was 5.37 (on a scale of 1–10) and their perception of the severity of fracture was the most important factor in returning for subsequent appointments (79.6%). Seventeen patients (9%) missed at least one subsequent appointment.This paper describes both the socio-economic impact and the parents’ perception of fracture clinic appointments. Severity of injury is the major determinant of future attendance and there is little demand for evening or weekend clinics.