Effects of fever education on changing parental concepts and management of fever in childhood.

"Fever phobia" has been found to decrease parents' ability to assess and manage febrile children appropriately, increase the utilization of emergency health care services, and add to the burden of family finances. Educational intervention is an important means of changing parents' knowledge, attitudes, and practices in order to counteract their misconceptions and over-anxiety, and improve the children's health. Parent-oriented education programs can be conducted in various ways, both inside and outside the clinic. However, evidence of the efficacy of given interventions from systematic evaluation of the literature is required to convince pediatric experts what content to teach and what methods to employ daily. The relevant literature from 1980 to 2004 were collected and reorganized to present the theories, contents, methods, effects, and influencing factors of various fever educational interventions. Accordingly, this article could provide healthcare professionals more information about the efficacy, accurate and reliable of various fever education programs. Thus, impel healthcare professionals provide more information to parents for improving parents' actions and decision making on fever management.