Katayama Yusuke, Kiyohara Kosuke, Hirose Tomoya, Matsuyama Tasuku, Ishida Kenichiro, Nakao Shunichiro, Tachino Jotaro, Ojima Masahiro, Noda Tomohiro, Kiguchi Takeyuki, Hayashida Sumito, Kitamura Tetsuhisa, Mizobata Yasumitsu, Shimazu Takeshi
Department of Traumatology and Acute Critical Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan.
Department of Food Science, Faculty of Home Economics, Otsuma Women's University, Tokyo, Japan.
JMIR Pediatr Parent. 2021 Jun 30;4(2):e27581. doi: 10.2196/27581.
When children suffer sudden illness or injury, many parents wonder whether they should go to the hospital immediately or call an ambulance. In 2015, we developed a mobile app that allows parents or guardians to determine the urgency of their child's condition or call an ambulance and that indicates available hospitals and clinics when their child is suddenly sick or injured by simple selection of the child's chief complaints and symptoms. However, the effectiveness of medical apps used by the general public has not been well evaluated.
The purpose of this study was to clarify the use profile of this mobile app based on data usage in the app.
This study was a descriptive epidemiological study with a 4-year study period running from January 2016 to December 2019. We included cases in which the app was used either by the children themselves or by their parents and other guardians. Cases in which the app was downloaded but never actually used were excluded from this study. Continuous variables are presented as median and IQR, and categorical variables are presented as actual number and percentages.
The app was used during the study period for 59,375 children whose median age was 1 year (IQR 0-3 years). The app was used for 33,874 (57.05%) infants, 16,228 (27.33%) toddlers, 8102 (13.65%) elementary school students, and 1117 (1.88%) junior high school students, with 54 (0.09%) having an unknown status. Furthermore, 31,519 (53.08%) were male and 27,329 (46.03%) were female, with sex being unknown for 527 (0.89%) children. "Sickness" was chosen for 49,101 (78.51%) patients, and "injury, poisoning, foreign, substances and others" was chosen for 13,441 (21.49%). For "sickness," "fever" was the most commonly selected option (22,773, 36.41%), followed by "cough" (4054, 6.48%), and "nausea/vomiting" (3528, 5.64%), whereas for "injury, poisoning, foreign substances and others," "head and neck injury" was the most commonly selected option (3887, 6.22%), followed by "face and extremities injury" (1493, 2.39%) and "injury and foreign substances in eyes" (1255, 2.01%).
This study clarified the profile of use of a self-triage app for pediatric emergency patients in Japan.
当儿童突发疾病或受伤时，许多家长都在纠结是应立即前往医院还是呼叫救护车。2015年，我们开发了一款移动应用程序，它能让家长或监护人判断孩子病情的紧急程度，或呼叫救护车，还能通过简单选择孩子的主要症状来指明当孩子突发疾病或受伤时可用的医院和诊所。然而，普通大众使用的医疗应用程序的有效性尚未得到充分评估。
本研究旨在根据应用程序中的数据使用情况，阐明这款移动应用程序的使用概况。
本研究是一项描述性流行病学研究，研究期为4年，从2016年1月至2019年12月。我们纳入了儿童本人或其父母及其他监护人使用该应用程序的案例。下载后从未实际使用该应用程序的案例被排除在本研究之外。连续变量以中位数和四分位数间距表示，分类变量以实际数量和百分比表示。
在研究期间，该应用程序被59375名儿童使用，这些儿童的中位年龄为1岁（四分位数间距0 - 3岁）。该应用程序被33874名（57.05%）婴儿、16228名（27.33%）幼儿、8102名（13.65%）小学生和1117名（1.88%）初中生使用，其中54名（0.09%）儿童的情况不明。此外，31519名（53.08%）为男性，27329名（46.03%）为女性，527名（0.89%）儿童的性别不明。49101名（78.51%）患者选择了“疾病”，13441名（21.49%）患者选择了“损伤、中毒、异物、物质及其他”。对于“疾病”，最常选择的选项是“发热”（22773名，36.41%），其次是“咳嗽”（4054名，6.48%）和“恶心/呕吐”（3528名，5.64%）；而对于“损伤、中毒、异物及其他”，最常选择的选项是“头颈部损伤”（3887名，6.22%），其次是“面部和四肢损伤”（1493名，2.39%）和“眼内损伤和异物”（1255名，2.01%）。
本研究阐明了日本一款儿科急诊患者自我分诊应用程序的使用概况。
