A questionnaire survey conducted in caregivers for children receiving home-based medical care regarding introduction of enteral feeding connector with interconnection-prevention (ISO80369-3)

Upon introduction of enteral feeding connector with interconnection-prevention (ISO80369-3), a questionnaire survey was conducted online in caregivers for children receiving home-based medical care in order to extract issues in the field of pediatric developmental stage. Six hundred and sixty-seven responses were valid. The number of attachment/removal of the connector per day was 21-40 times in 42%, 41-60 times in 19%, and more than 61 times in 12%, suggesting that it occurred very frequently. For the change of the connecting part to a lock system the numbers of responses for “inconvenient if it cannot be removed" (19%) and “better if it can be removed" (42%) were remarkably higher than “better if it cannot be removed" (13%) and “inconvenient if it can be removed" (1.8%). The rationales included 118 responses regarding possibility of developing serious incidences such as “accidental removal of gastrostoma itself/nasogastric tube" and “damage to the gastrostoma". For the change to a screw type, 89% of the subjects responded “apprehensive"; most of them raised issues regarding increased burdens of caregivers as well as hygienic concerns with nutrient stuck in a ditch. It appeared that the connector with a novel standard, the screw-type lock system, might be disadvantage for children receiving home-based care in terms of safety and burdens for caregivers, suggesting that we should continue handling conventional connectors until the above-mentioned issues would be investigated.