Analysis of the perceptions, knowledge and attitudes of parents towards fever in children: A systematic review with a qualitative meta-synthesis

Abstract

Fever is the most common symptom in childhood. Despite its prevalence and decades of education and research, the treatment of fever and febrile illnesses continues to cause concern and anxiety in parents. The objective of this systematic review with meta-synthesis is to analyse parents' perceptions, knowledge and attitudes towards the febrile child and how they influence the construction of the concept of fever. The PRISMA international standards and PRISMA checklist, as well as the Cochrane recommendations, were followed. Articles with qualitative methodology have been selected that analyse what fever means to parents, what their concerns about this sign are, where they get their information and what their expectations are of healthcare professionals during treating their feverish child. Finally, 17 articles that met the inclusion criteria were added in the qualitative meta-synthesis. The concept of fever has been represented as a non-harmful sign in and of itself, an aspect that emerges in fathers and mothers' discourse. Meanwhile, the perceived need to lower the temperature still appears to be the main aim of their approach, with attitudes implying an emergency to reach normothermia, focusing on temperature as the primary indicator of severity.