Centre for Policy on Ageing



Grandmothers' role in preventing unnecessary accident and emergency attendances — cohort study
Author(s)	Emma Fergusson, Jun Li, Brent Taylor
Journal title	British Medical Journal, vol 317, no 7174, 19 December 1998
Pages	p 1685
Keywords	Grandmothers ; Informal care ; Grandchildren ; Retirement clinics ; Social surveys ; Camden.
Annotation	A study in the US has suggested that when grandmothers were involved in a child's care, there was greater use of accident and emergency services. The authors' impression was that the reverse was true in the UK, and that grandmothers had a beneficial role in supporting mothers and young children. Their study set out to investigate this, and used a telephone based questionnaire to study the families of 128 children aged 5 and under attending the Royal Free Hospital A&E department in July and August 1997. Their findings suggest that children who have a grandmother involved in their care are less likely to present to A&E with minor or trivial conditions considered not to need treatment. There is little material in current training or standard textbooks on this topic. The absence of an involved grandmother in a child's care is a marker of family vulnerability which health services should take into account. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-990121203 A
Classmark	SW2: P6: SW5: L6D: 3F: 82L8 *
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.