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Diagnostic labels influenced parents’ perceptions of children’s illness, medication needs
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Parents would be more likely to medicate their children when their symptoms are labeled as a disease, even when told that medication would be ineffective, according to a recent study.
Researchers administered a survey to 175 parents of children seen at a primary care pediatric clinic. The survey depicted a hypothetical scenario in which the responder — the parent of an otherwise healthy infant who cries and spits up excessively — is at a pediatric appointment. Participants were randomly assigned to receive one of the following scenarios and variables:
- GERD diagnosis: The pediatrician diagnoses the child’s condition as GERD in half of the scenarios and offers no specific diagnosis in the other half.
- Medication efficacy: The pediatrician offers medication to treat the condition in all versions. Half of participants are told the medication “probably doesn’t do anything to help improve symptoms in infants with GERD,” while the other half is given no information on the medication’s efficacy.
Participants indicated their impressions of the child’s health and severity of the condition, their interest and expectations in medicating the infant, and their appreciation for the pediatrician’s medication offer. Parents were somewhat worried about the child’s health in the scenario and felt the illness was somewhat severe, but were not likely to consider the child “sick.” Neither variable significantly impacted responses to these questions (P>.12 for all).
Participants who received a GERD diagnosis were more likely to seek medication for their infant than those who did not (P<.01), even when told that it would be ineffective (P<.05). Among those who did not receive a GERD diagnosis, only those who were not informed of the medication’s efficacy expressed interest in medication. Investigators said parents whose children had GERD (n=37) were more interested in medication within the scenario (P<.05).
“We found that a GERD disease label increases interest in using medication when the medications are known to be ineffective,” the researchers wrote. “Hence, doctors may inadvertently encourage the use of questionable medical interventions and foster medicalization of minor pediatric illnesses by using labels that increase patients’ perceived need for treatment.”
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