Burke, Kimberley, Coombes, Lucy Helen, Menezes, Antoinette and Anderson, Anna-Karenia (2018) The ‘surprise’ question in paediatric palliative care: A prospective cohort study. Palliative Medicine, 32 (2). pp. 535-542. ISSN 0269-2163

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Abstract

Background:
The question ‘would you be surprised if this patient died in the next 12-months’ is widely used for identifying adult patients in the last year of life. However, this has not yet been studied in children.

Aim:
To assess the prognostic accuracy of the surprise question when used by a multidisciplinary team to predict survival outcomes of children with life-limiting conditions over a 3 and 12 month period.

Design:
A prospective cohort study.

Setting/participants:
Six multidisciplinary team members working in a children’s hospice answered a 3 and 12 month surprise question about 327 children who were either newly referred or receiving care at the hospice between 2011 and 2013.

Results:
The prognostic accuracy of the multidisciplinary team for the 3 (and 12)month surprise question were: sensitivity 83.3% (83.3%), specificity 93.2% (70.7%), positive predictive value 41.7% (23.6%), negative predictive value 99% (97.5%) and accuracy 92.6% (71.9%). Patients with a ‘no’ response had an increased risk of death at 3 (hazard ratio, 22.94, p ⩽ 0.001) and 12 months (hazard ratio, 6.53, p ⩽ 0.001).

Conclusion:
The surprise question is a highly sensitive prognostic tool for identifying children receiving palliative care who are in the last 3 and 12 months of life. The tool is accurate at recognising children during stable periods demonstrated through a high negative predictive value. In practice, this tool could help identify children who would benefit from specialist end of life care, act as a marker to facilitate communications on advance care planning and assist in resource allocation.

Item Type:	Article
Identifier:	10.1177/0269216317716061
Additional Information:	Burke K, Coombes LH, Menezes A, Anderson A-K. The ‘surprise’ question in paediatric palliative care: A prospective cohort study. Palliative Medicine. 2018;32(2):535-542. Copyright © 2018 SAGE Publications. DOI: 10.1177/0269216317716061
Keywords:	Paediatric, palliative care, prognosis, survival
Subjects:	Medicine and health > Child health Medicine and health
Related URLs:	Publisher
Depositing User:	Antoinette Menezes
Date Deposited:	17 Jun 2021 14:15
Last Modified:	06 Feb 2024 16:06
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/8007

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