Table 1. Healthcare professionals’ practices for fever in children and concordance with recommendations.
| AAP | NICE | Afssaps | CPS | General practitioners (n = 3,270)* | Pediatricians (n = 1,596)* | Pharmacists (n = 1,730)* | Total (n = 6,596)* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N(%) | N(%) | N(%) | N(%) | |||||
| Drug treatment | 3,187(97.5%) | 1,469(92.0%) | 864(49.9%) | 5,520(83.7%) | ||||
| Monotherapy c | X | X | X | 3,006(94.3%) | 1,313(89.4%) | 781(90.4%) | 5,100(92.4%) | |
| Physical treatments | ||||||||
| N‘ (%) of available data | 3,110(95.1%) | 1,438(90.1%) | 1,507(87.1%) | 6,055(91.8%) | ||||
| At least 1 physical treatment | 1,708(54.9%) μ | 1,061(73.8%) | 994(66.0%) | 3,763(62.2%) | ||||
| Treatments | ||||||||
| Give a cool bath | 329(10.6%) μ | 126(8.8%) μ | 341(22.6%) μ | 796(13.1%) μ | ||||
| Avoid overdressing a | X | X | X | 1,158(37.2%) μ | 837(58.2%) μ | 605(40.2%) μ | 2,600(42.9%) μ | |
| Oral hydration a | X | X | X | X | 1,112(35.8%) μ | 702(48.8%) μ | 555(36.8%) μ | 2,369(39.1%) μ |
| Avoid an overheated atmosphere a | X | X | X | 377(12.1%) μ | 235(16.3%) μ | 260(17.3%) μ | 872(14.4%) μ | |
| Other b | 188(6.1%) μ | 125(8.7%) μ | 141(9.4%) μ | 454(7.5%) μ | ||||
| At least 1 of 3 recommended physical treatments | 1,586(51.0%) μ | 997(69.3%) μ | 861(57.1%) μ | 3,444(56.9%) μ | ||||
| Three recommended physical treatments c | X | X | 181(5.8%) μ | 145(10.1%) μ | 78(5.2%) μ | 404(6.7%) μ | ||
| Written advice or pamphlet | 332(10.2%) | 370(23.2%) | 132(7.6%) | 834(12.6%) |
*no. of children recruited.
AAP, American Academy of Pediatrics; NICE, UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence; Afssaps, French Drug Agency; CPS, Canadian Paediatric Society
μ Percentage calculated on available data (n’)
a Recommended physical treatments in our study.
b Increase heating, not aerate the room, use a ventilator, dress the child, use a wet sponge, humidify the room.
c Concordance with recommendations of our study.