Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The aim of this study was to investigate cultural factors often thought to be associated with social classes, leading to differences of attitude and belief and to variation in behaviour with regard to patterns of child rearing, and, more specifically, to investigate the proposal that working class parents do not understand the social and emotional needs of their children in hospital.
Main Topics:
Variables Social class (National Readership Survey classification); previous hospital experience; type of admission (accident, emergency, planned admission/readmission, unplanned readmission); explanations given to child about hospitalization; beliefs held about harm caused through lack of regular visiting; reported transport difficulties; satisfaction with information given during child's stay in hospital; frequency of visiting; use made of visitors' facilities; expenditure on transport and other items associated with child's hospitalization.
Those hospitals which treated acute child patients (in any specialty, not just paediatric patients) were first established from the Hospital Activity Analysis (HAA). From this list a sample of hospitals was drawn, the probability of a hospital being chosen being proportional to the number of child patients discharged. An additional control was imposed to ensure that a geographically representative distribution of patients and hospitals was selected. All discharges in the sparsely populated areas were taken, while discharges in the more heavily populated industrial areas were half weighted and weighted back to population proportions at the computer stage. Having been sampled, hospitals were stratified by Hospital Management Committee area and by number of child patients discharged. Hospitals, except the larger ones, were grouped together on the basis of geographic location, number of child patients discharged and type of specialization, to form hospital groups. From this stratified list of hospitals and hospital groups, a total of 50 sampling points was then selected with the probability proportional to the number of child patients discharged, using a fixed interval from a random start. At each sampling point a total of approximately 40 names were randomly selected from recent HAA returns, again using a fixed interval from a random start. At points where the required number of names was not available, all available names were drawn. Before the researchers started interviewing, the Welsh Hospital Board Secretary wrote to parents of children sampled giving them the opportunity to refuse to be interviewed. Of those who did not object, a total of 20 names was then selected from each sampling point.
Face-to-face interview
Compilation or synthesis of existing material
