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Not just little adults: a review of 102 paediatric ethics consultations
Author(s) -
Thomas Stefanie M.,
Ford Paul J.,
Weise Kathryn L.,
Worley Sarah,
Kodish Eric
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
acta paediatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/apa.12940
Subject(s) - medicine , family medicine , logistic regression , descriptive statistics , ethics committee , population , clinical ethics , pediatrics , statistics , mathematics , environmental health , public administration , political science , engineering , engineering ethics
Aim The A merican A cademy of P ediatrics statement on institutional ethics committees highlights the importance of paediatric ethics consultation. However, little has been published on actual experience with ethics consultation in paediatrics. The objective of this study was to review and describe topics covered by a large retrospective sample of clinical ethics consultations in paediatric medicine. Methods We reviewed ethics consultations involving patients of <18 years of age from January 2005 to July 2013 at one institution. Descriptive statistics of the patient population, the reason for the ethics consultation and the consultant's perceived contribution to the case were generated. Subgroups of patients were compared based on demographic and clinical characteristics using W ilcoxon's rank sum tests, chi‐square tests and logistic regression models. Results Most of the 102 eligible consultations originated from intensive care units and were requested by attending physicians. The most frequent topic leading to consultation was end‐of‐life issues. Both younger age and male sex were associated with consults for end‐of‐life issues (p < 0.001 and p = 0.010). Conclusion This analysis provides important information describing the type of consults requested in paediatric medicine, which is necessary given the movement towards professionalising clinical ethics consultation. Further empirical research is needed on ethics consultation in paediatrics.