Abstract
Background
Medical decisions parents make on their children's behalf can be challenging. Free
online decision support tools are created to help parents faced with these decisions.
Objective
We used an environmental scan to identify free, online tools that support parents
in making decisions about their children's chronic health condition. We described
the tools and assessed their potential to harm, content, development process, readability,
and whether their use changed decision makers’ knowledge and alignment of their preferences
with their final decision.
Data Sources and Eligibility
Decision aid repositories, Google searches, and key informants identified decision
support tools. Eligible tools were freely available online and for parents of children
with chronic health conditions.
Appraisal Methods
Two reviewers independently assessed the tools’ quality based on the International
Patient Decision Aid Standards (IPDAS). Tool readability was assessed using the Flesch
Reading Ease test.
Results
From 21 free, online decision support tools, 14 (67%) provided sufficient detail for
making a specific decision (IPDAS qualifying criteria). None sufficiently met IPDAS
certification criteria necessary to reduce the possibility of patient harms when using
the tool. Three (14%) were fairly easy or easy to read. Of those evaluated by developers
(n = 6), 2 improved knowledge and 4 improved alignment of preferences with the available
options.
Limitations
Google searches and key informant sources are not replicable.
Conclusions
Free, online decision support tools for parents of children with chronic health conditions
are of variable quality, most are difficult to read, and there is limited evidence
their use achieves intended outcomes.
Registration Number
Registered with Open Science Framework 20 July 2021(AEST) osf.io/b94yj.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 10, 2023
Accepted:
February 4,
2023
Received:
August 31,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofFootnotes
Author JL Lin receives funds from NIH/NIAMS 1K23AR079778. The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Identification
Copyright
© 2023 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Academic Pediatric Association
