Participant quotes supporting thematic analysis
| Theme/subtheme | Representative quote |
|---|---|
| Theme 1: parents’ information needs about childhood bronchiolitis | |
| Subtheme 1: recognizing severity | “I didn’t really know that a virus could make my daughter have that much trouble breathing.” [Interview 3, child age 1 yr] “I always knew they were going to get sick, but I always thought it would be ... a 1- or 2-day thing.” [Interview 5, child age 6.5 mo] “It was a little difficult to get at which point he actually has to go to [the emergency department].” [Interview 10, child age 6 wk] “For a parent who doesn’t have a medical background, it is very hard to understand that point where you have to go right away to [the emergency department].” [Interview 11, child age 7 mo] “I think we ... waited longer [to go to the emergency department] because we thought maybe it was something to recover from quickly.” [Interview 5, child age 6.5 mo] “He’s our third child, so we’ve got two kids before. ... Normally, when the kids get sick, we give them Tylenol, something like that, but when we notice they start to get difficulty breathing, then we know we’ve got to go to the doctor.” [Interview 6, child age 19 mo] “It’s not ... ‘Oh yeah, I’ve done this before’… it’s ... ‘Oh my god, what do I do again? ... This is happening again? What did I do the first time? I don’t remember.’” [Interview 1, child age 11 mo] |
| Subtheme 2: knowing about bronchiolitis | “I didn’t know a whole lot about it [bronchiolitis].” [Interview 9, child age 2 yr] “I was asking ... how it has been caused? And … what is the source of these symptoms?” [Interview 1, child age 11 mo] “They [health care team] didn’t really explain ... how or what kind of symptoms I should be looking for.” [Interview 1, child age 11 mo] “To be honest ... I had Googled it a bit. So I knew to look for in-drawing. ... Nobody had really told me that.” [Interview 13, child age 7 mo] |
| Theme 2: parents’ preferred sources to seek health information about their child | |
| Subtheme 1: talking to a health care professional | “I’ll just call the pediatrician and just take an appointment. … At some point, it’s just saying ... ‘I’m going to try to rely on somebody who’s more knowledgeable than me for this specific problem.” [Interview 3, child age 14 mo] “I called the doctor — we had gone already a couple of times to the doctor. But I called and I ... said that he wasn’t getting better, and I asked if I should bring him back in. This was about 5 ... or 6 days after he originally got sick. And then, when we went in to our pediatrician’s office, he rushed us for a chest x-ray and some blood work, and then back to his clinic, and by the time we had got back to his clinic, he had read the chest x-ray report. He then contacted [Emergency Medical Services] to take us to the Stollery.” [Interview 4, child age 16 mo] “As much as we wanted to go home, it was really good that he [pediatrician] had him admitted. Because ... that ... really alleviated any fears that were left in me, because I knew ... he was being looked after by medical professionals.” [Interview 1, child age 11 mo] “I was calling Health Link ... because … it’s totally helpful to talk to somebody.” [Interview 11, child age 7 mo] “Normally when they get sick, we call the Health Link line. That — it’s our number one.” [Interview 6, child age 19 mo] |
| Subtheme 2: Internet | “Google is ... a mom’s … best friend.” [Interview 1, child age 11 mo] “I Googled … worsening coughs and ... fever lasting longer than 3 days.” [Interview 2, child age 3 mo] “If I see ... symptoms that seem to me, strange, other than being a normal cold, then, yes. I check online.” [Interview 14, child age 1 yr] “I’ll look at ... the Mayo Clinic or … [websites] that I know are actually from the health care field and not just somebody’s experience.” [Interview 12, child age 5 mo] “A clinical ... status. ... WebMD is a good site — for me, anyway.” [Interview 1, child age 11 mo] “I am a part of … the parent groups [on social media], but I don’t ask for … health information through those.” [Interview 13, child age 2 mo] “There’s some [websites] that are meant for … parents to ... summarize … in layman’s terms, pretty much. ... Symptoms to look for, and what you need to do, when you need to bring the baby to the hospital.” [Interview 1, child age 11 mo] |
| Theme 3: parents’ preferred formats to receive health information regarding their child | |
| Subtheme 1: written information | “If there would be a pamphlet that describes the … sickness … not in a very scientific, but simple way … how it happens, and what are the causes and what parents can do about that, or what are the ways that we can protect the children more [from] this type of virus.” [Interview 14, child age 1 yr] “Pamphlets are good. Maybe if parents bring their kids in for flu shots, that can be … given to them. Like a pamphlet about bronchiolitis, because I didn’t know about it until it happened to my kids.” [Interview 1, child age 11 mo] “Because bronchiolitis is so hard on newborns … [a pamphlet in] the discharge package, when you’re leaving ... the hospital from having the babies, might not be a bad idea.” [Interview 8, child age 10 wk] |
| Subtheme 2: online sources | “There’s the … Canadian Paediatric Society. There’s ... Health Kids. I guess that knowing that these websites that you can trust exist.” [Interview 3, child age 14 mo] “Other people don’t like reading, so watching videos, I think that works … but sometimes people need to see words written, or sometimes ... in Canada, we have language barriers. So I feel ... information in the video is too fast.” [Interview 15, child age 6 wk] “Social media or something, it’s something I would probably ignore, wouldn’t notice.” [Interview 10, child age 2 yr]. |
| Subtheme 3: verbal communication | “The best way [to deliver information] is person to person.” [Interview 15, child age 6 wk] “For me, it’s been having a good pediatrician ... someone I know that I can call.” [Interview 2, child age 3 mo] “I do have a lot of nursing friends. And so I text them and … they ... they’re moms as well. So they ... have pretty good input.” [Interview 1, child age 11 mo] |