A recent study from the University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital has found that parental concern is a strong indicator for identifying severe illness in children, outperforming digital symptom questionnaires. The research involved 2,375 patients at the emergency department for children and adolescents at Oulu University Hospital. Parents were asked to complete a comprehensive 36-item questionnaire before their child was assessed by medical professionals.
The findings revealed that asking parents directly about their level of concern identified up to 91 percent of seriously ill children. This method proved more effective than relying on detailed symptom checklists or additional medical questions.
"Parental concern is an important warning sign. If a parent is worried about the condition of their suddenly ill child, the child must have the opportunity to be assessed by a doctor. A worried parent should not be left alone to make a remote assessment of their child’s condition," said pediatrician and MD, PhD Hilla Pöyry.
About one in four children in the study was diagnosed with a severe illness requiring intensive care, surgery, or an extended hospital stay. The research showed that adding more questions or seeking more detailed information did not improve the accuracy of parental assessments regarding their child's health.
The study also evaluated whether home-use digital tools could reliably help parents assess if their child needed urgent medical attention. However, researchers concluded that even extensive questionnaires do not offer enough sensitivity or accuracy to replace professional evaluation—especially when parents already express concern about their child's health.
"Our results show that such tools require careful validation, and they do not yet replace the assessment of a healthcare professional. Although a parent may not always be able to describe the child’s symptoms in detail or accurately, they recognize a serious illness very well when asked a simple concern-based question," Pöyry added.
These results come as digital and AI-based tools are increasingly being integrated into healthcare services, highlighting ongoing discussions about their effectiveness compared to traditional clinical assessments.
