Development of a web-based assessment tool that evaluates the meal situation when a child has a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy

Abstract

BackgroundChildren with cancer often suffer side effects from their treatment, for example nausea and vomiting, which can lead to malnutrition. If a child cannot eat orally, a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) can improve his or her well-being, psychosocial development and growth by enabling the supply of nourishment and facilitating the administration of necessary medicines. Few data exist on children’s comfort when using a PEG. The aim of this study was firstly to develop three versions of a web-based assessment tool in which children, families, and healthcare professionals would be able to register their observations and assessments for evaluating the meal situation when a child has a PEG and secondly to validate the content of the tool.MethodsA qualitative design was chosen with purposive sampling of participants. Five children with cancer, five parents, five registered nurses and five paediatricians participated first in an interview and then in a member check of the web-based tool. The data were analysed with manifest qualitative content analysis.ResultsThe results highlighted four categories of issues which needed to be revised in the web-based tool: words which were difficult for the participants to understand, items which contained several questions, items which needed to be split into more items to be answerable and the layout of the questionnaire. The web-based tool was revised according to the categories, and then a member check evaluated and finally confirmed the revisions.ConclusionsA web-based tool may be able to evaluate the meal situation when a child with cancer has a PEG. The tool may be able to detect early failures of the PEG, facilitating early action from the healthcare professionals in supporting the child and his or her parents in their care of the PEG. In the long run, this web-based tool may also be able to increase the quality of care of children living with a PEG.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12887-019-1447-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Construction and Application of Random Forest (RF)-Based Early Childhood Development Assessment Models

“…with variability [2]. This requires relevant educators and parents to understand and collect relevant data on young children in their daily life and learning process and use this as the basis for effective, scientific, and comprehensive developmental ability assessment, comprehensive and holistic understanding of the actual development of children's abilities, and based on the results to develop individualized teaching programs for different young children [3]. In addition, many young children with special developmental conditions (e.g., dyslexia, etc.)…”

“…Shengwei Li, Guiyun Li and Xiaomeng Lu. Applied Mathematics and Nonlinear Sciences, 9(1) (2024)[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] …”