Grant: Operating Grant

Pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) hospitalization places children at increased risk of persistent psychological and behavioral difficulties following discharge. More than 210,000 children are admitted to PICUs in North America every year, and despite tremendous advances in sophisticated medical technology and treatment regimes approximately 25% will demonstrate negative psychological and behavioral responses within the first year post-discharge. Little is known about children's responses beyond one year post-discharge, or about the risk and protective factors that may impact them. Enhancing our understanding of the impact of PICU hospitalization on children's psychological well-being will allow us to identify areas for health care promotion and intervention. This study aims to: (1) examine psychological and behavioral responses in children over 3 years following PICU hospitalization, and compare their responses with those of a comparison group of children who underwent day surgery; (2) determine whether previous hospital experiences, characteristics of the PICU admission (e.g., the number of invasive procedures the child is exposed to during treatment), and child and parent post-discharge factors (e.g., anxiety and stress) predict children's psychological and behavioral responses during the 3-year follow-up period; (3) explore a subgroup of these parents' perceptions of the impact of hospitalization on their children. We will enroll 220 children aged 3 to 12 years into the study: 110 in the PICU study group, and 110 in the day surgery group. Data will be collected at 6 weeks and at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months post-discharge. Children will be recruited from 4 Canadian pediatric hospitals located in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, and Halifax. We will collect study data using well-established questionnaires, and interview a subset of 40 parents to explore their perceptions of how hospitalization impacted their children to enhance our understanding of the questionnaire data.