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A clinical prediction model to identify children at risk for revisits with serious illness to the emergency department: A prospective multicentre observational study

Nijman RG, Borensztajn DH, Zachariasse JM, Hajema C, Freitas P, Greber-Platzer S, Smit FJ, Alves CF et al.

PloS one, 2021

98,561 participants

Abstract

BACKGROUND: To develop a clinical prediction model to identify children at risk for revisits with serious illness to the emergency department.

METHODS AND FINDINGS: A secondary analysis of a prospective multicentre observational study in five European EDs (the TRIAGE study), including consecutive children aged = 3%, which was useful for ruling in a revisit with serious illness, with positive likelihood ratio 4.41 (95% CI 3.87-5.01) and specificity 0.96 (95% CI 0.95-0.96). 37,546 (39%) had a risk <0.5%, which was useful for ruling out a revisit with serious illness (negative likelihood ratio 0.30 (95% CI 0.25-0.35), sensitivity 0.88 (95% CI 0.86-0.90)). The extended model had an improved summary AUC of 0.71 (95% CI 0.68-0.75) and summary calibration slope of 0.84 (95% CI 0.71-0.97). As study limitations, variables on ethnicity and social deprivation could not be included, and only return visits to the original hospital and not to those of surrounding hospitals were recorded.

CONCLUSION: We developed a prediction model and a digital calculator which can aid physicians identifying those children at highest and lowest risks for developing a serious illness after initial discharge from the ED, allowing for more targeted safety netting advice and follow-up.

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a cohort study, done in people. Its evidence level is 3 of 5 (Moderate · trial / cohort / secondary analysis). Trials without a large randomized design, cohorts and secondary analyses give moderate evidence. Reported size: 98,561 participants or records.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

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