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Priority setting in paediatric preventive care research
Mikael Lavigne1,2, Catherine S Birken2,3, Jonathon L Maguire4,5
1Department of Pediatrics, North York General Hospital, Toronto, Canada.
Insights
Parents and clinicians identified the top 10 research priorities in pediatric preventive care. Key areas include mental health, parental stress, and childhood development, guiding future research for better child health outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Preventive Care
- Health Services Research
- Child Health
Background:
- Identifying research gaps in pediatric preventive care is crucial for advancing child health.
- Parent and clinician perspectives are vital in setting research priorities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify and rank the most important unanswered research questions in pediatric preventive care.
- To explore potential differences in research priorities between parents and clinicians.
Main Methods:
- An iterative, mixed-methods priority-setting process informed by the James Lind Alliance methodology.
- Online questionnaires collected research questions from parents and clinicians, followed by a consensus workshop using nominal group technique.
Main Results:
- A total of 1046 research questions were submitted, consolidated into 79 indicative questions, with nutrition, illness prevention, and behavior management being common themes.
- Parents disproportionately raised questions regarding screen time and environmental toxins compared to clinicians.
- The top 10 priorities identified by the consensus workshop included mental health, parental stress, physical activity, obesity, development, behavior management, and screen time.
Conclusions:
- The study successfully identified the top 10 unanswered research questions in pediatric preventive care from both parent and clinician viewpoints.
- These identified research priorities hold significant potential for advancing the field of preventive healthcare for children.
Objectives:
To identify the unanswered research questions in paediatric preventive care that are most important to parents and clinicians, and to explore how questions from parents and clinicians may differ.
Design:
Iterative mixed methods research priority setting process.
Setting:
Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Participants:
Parents of children aged 0-5 years enrolled in a research network in Toronto, and clinicians practising in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Interventions:
Informed by the James Lind Alliance's methodology, an online questionnaire collected unanswered research questions in paediatric preventive care from study participants. Similar submissions were combined and ranked. A consensus workshop attended by 28 parents and clinicians considered the most highly ranked submissions and used the nominal group technique to select the 10 most important unanswered research questions.
Results:
Forty-two clinicians and 115 parents submitted 255 and 791 research questions, respectively, which were combined into 79 indicative questions. Most submissions were about nutrition, illness prevention, parenting and behaviour management. Parents were more likely to ask questions about screen time (49 parents vs 8 clinicians, p<0.05) and environmental toxins (18 parents vs 0 clinicians, p<0.05). The top 10 unanswered questions identified at the workshop related to mental health, parental stress, physical activity, obesity, childhood development, behaviour management and screen time.
Conclusion:
The top 10 most important unanswered research questions in paediatric preventive care from the perspective of parents and clinicians were identified. These research priorities may be important in advancing preventive healthcare for children.