Robin D. Marlow
Comparing the usability of paediatric weight estimation methods: A simulation study
Marlow, Robin D.; Wood, Dora L.B.; Lyttle, Mark D.
Abstract
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. Objective Estimating weight is essential in order to prepare appropriate sized equipment and doses of resuscitation drugs in cases where children are critically ill or injured. Many methods exist with varying degrees of complexity and accuracy. The most recent version of the Advanced Paediatric Life Support (APLS) course has changed their teaching from an age-based calculation method to the use of a reference table. We aimed to evaluate the potential implications of this change. Method Using a bespoke online simulation platform we assessed the ability of acute paediatric staff to apply different methods of weight estimation. Comparing the time taken, rate and magnitude of errors were made using the APLS single and triple age-based formulae, Best Guess and reference table methods. To add urgency and an element of cognitive stress, a time-based competitive component was included. Results 57 participants performed a total of 2240 estimates of weight. The reference table was the fastest (25 (22-28) vs 35 (31-38) to 48 (43-51) s) and most preferred, but errors were made using all methods. There was no significant difference in the percentage accuracy between methods (93%-97%) but the magnitude of errors made was significantly smaller using the three APLS formulae 10% (6.5-21) compared with reference table (69% (34-133)) mainly from month/year table confusion. Conclusion In this exploratory study under psychological stress none of the methods of weight estimation were free from error. Reference tables were the fastest method and also had the largest errors and should be designed to minimise the risk of picking errors.
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jun 18, 2018 |
Online Publication Date | Jul 5, 2018 |
Publication Date | Feb 1, 2019 |
Deposit Date | Jul 12, 2018 |
Publicly Available Date | Jul 12, 2018 |
Journal | Archives of Disease in Childhood |
Print ISSN | 0003-9888 |
Electronic ISSN | 1468-2044 |
Publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 104 |
Issue | 2 |
Pages | 121-123 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2018-314873 |
Keywords | weight estimation, paediatric, simulation |
Public URL | https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/853444 |
Publisher URL | http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2018-314873 |
Additional Information | Additional Information : This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published version is available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2018-314873. |
Contract Date | Jul 12, 2018 |
Files
Comparing the Usability of paediatric weight estimation methods_revision2_clean.pdf
(797 Kb)
PDF
Comparing the Usability of paediatric weight estimation methods_revision2_clean.docx
(54 Kb)
Document
You might also like
Trends in admission and death rates due to paediatric head injury in England, 2000-2011
(2015)
Journal Article
Assessing the impacts of the first year of rotavirus vaccination in the United Kingdom
(2015)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About UWE Bristol Research Repository
Administrator e-mail: repository@uwe.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search