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PROS Febrile Infant Study |
Statement of the Problem:
Fever in young infants is a problem commonly encountered by primary care practitioners. Because of their developmental immaturity, young infants may not demonstrate clinical signs or behaviors that indicate underlying serious disease. This has led practitioners to adopt a wide range of clinical strategies in treating these infants. Currently recommended policies for managing febrile infants vary from extensive diagnostic evaluation, hospitalization, and treatment of all infants to the use of clinical judgment to selectively hospitalize and treat those infants who are at risk for serious illness. The purpose of this study is to assess what factors in the management of febrile infants are associated with variations in clinical outcomes.
Specific Study Aims:
- Determine how effective current clinical strategies are in predicting which febrile infants have serious illnesses.
- Examine benefits, harms, and costs in febrile infants associated with these varying diagnostic and treatment strategies.
- Determine whether physicians can identify febrile infants for whom the risks of serious bacterial illness is sufficiently low that a "treat-all" policy is unwarranted because the harms (morbidity) and costs of this policy exceeds the benefits and costs of a more selective strategy.
| Core support for the PROS network is provided by a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration Maternal and Child Health Bureau |  |
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