Parental experiences in navigating health services for paediatric residual obstructive sleep apnoea: An exploratory qualitative descriptive study

Abstract

ObjectivesTo explore parents' experiences and perceptions regarding engagement in health services for managing residual paediatric obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) across levels of care.MethodsQualitative description guided study design. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews with parents of children diagnosed with residual OSA at a university‐based sleep clinic. The relevant literature informed the interview guide and was piloted before data collection. Inductive, manifest content analysis was used to describe parents' perceptions and experiences using data‐driven categories and sub‐categories. Several strategies were employed to ensure rigour in this study.ResultsEight interviews were conducted. Parents' views were organized into five categories: awareness of the sleep issue, interaction with non‐sleep specialists, interaction with sleep specialists, interaction with dental professionals, and further actions and support. Parents reported several engagement issues due to their interactions with different care providers. These issues included having to personally identify and raise the sleep problem, feeling that care providers did not take this problem seriously, waiting for an extended period to be referred for sleep services, and receiving conflicting or insufficient treatment recommendations. Overall, parents perceived that their actions and the services received across levels of care were not effective enough to address paediatric OSA.ConclusionBased on this exploratory qualitative descriptive research, along with developing evidence‐based clinical guidelines for paediatric OSA screening and management tailored to different levels of care, strategies intended to improve the engagement of patients and care providers in addressing paediatric OSA should be developed and empirically tested.