Parents’ experience of childhood atopic eczema in the public health sector of Gauteng

BACKGROUND: The World Allergy Organization found that 20% – 30% of the world's population suffers from an allergic disease. Most allergic patients are seen by non-allergy-trained healthcare workers. The public primary healthcare (PHC) management of childhood atopic eczema (CAE) in the central Gauteng district was the focus of the overall study. The focus of this article is the parents’ experience of CAE and the management thereof. The research question was: What is the experience of parents living with a child with atopic eczema (AE)? OBJECTIVES: The overall purpose was to develop validated PHC management guidelines for CAE. One of the objectives was to explore and describe the experiences of parents regarding the AE of their children and the management thereof. METHOD: An embedded single case study design using a qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual strategy was employed. Data was collected through semi-structured individual interviews from a purposively selected sample and field notes. Ten parents were interviewed, after which data saturation occurred. Data were analysed according to Tesch's steps of descriptive data analysis. Lincoln and Guba's model was used to ensure trustworthiness. RESULTS: Three main themes were identified. This article focuses on theme one: The physical, emotional and social impact of CAE. Theme two identified the management challenges and theme three indicated recommendations regarding the management of CAE. CONCLUSION: The facilitation of management of CAE focuses on developing PHC guidelines and addressing management challenges in order to achieve better controlled CAE.