Paediatric pneumonia research priorities in the context of COVID-19: An eDelphi study
Carina King1,2, Kevin Baker1,3, Sol Richardson3
1Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Insights
Research priorities for childhood pneumonia were updated, with experts ranking the prevention of neonatal pneumonia as the top concern. Operational research and intervention evaluation are crucial for addressing this global child health challenge.
Area of Science:
- Child Health
- Infectious Diseases
- Global Health
Background:
- Childhood pneumonia is the leading cause of infectious deaths in children under five globally.
- The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted research priorities for childhood pneumonia.
- Previous research priorities require updating to address current challenges.
Purpose of the Study:
- To update research priorities for childhood pneumonia, considering the COVID-19 pandemic.
- To assess whether previous research priorities have been addressed.
- To identify and rank new and existing research topics.
Main Methods:
- An eDelphi study was conducted with 108 experts from November 2019 to June 2021.
- A three-stage approach involved collating, narrowing down, and ranking research topics.
- Participants were balanced by gender, profession, and country income level (high-income countries vs. low- and middle-income countries).
Main Results:
- A total of 101 research topics were retained after expert evaluation.
- The highest-ranked priority was to "explore interventions to prevent neonatal pneumonia."
- Epidemiological research, intervention evaluation, and operational/implementation research were highly prioritized, including COVID-19 specific topics.
Conclusions:
- Operational research on health system capacities and optimizing existing interventions is essential.
- Prioritizing the prevention of neonatal pneumonia requires collaborative and multi-disciplinary research efforts.
- The updated research agenda aims to catalyze further research and partnerships in childhood pneumonia.
Background:
Pneumonia remains the leading cause of infectious deaths in children under-five globally. We update the research priorities for childhood pneumonia in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and explore whether previous priorities have been addressed.
Methods:
We conducted an eDelphi study from November 2019 to June 2021. Experts were invited to take part, targeting balance by: gender, profession, and high (HIC) and low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). We followed a three-stage approach: 1. Collating questions, using a list published in 2011 and adding newly posed topics; 2. Narrowing down, through participant scoring on importance and whether they had been answered; 3. Ranking of retained topics. Topics were categorized into: prevent and protect, diagnosis, treatment and cross-cutting.
Results:
Overall 379 experts were identified, and 108 took part. We started with 83 topics, and 81 further general and 40 COVID-19 specific topics were proposed. In the final ranking 101 topics were retained, and the highest ranked was to "explore interventions to prevent neonatal pneumonia". Among the top 20 topics, epidemiological research and intervention evaluation was commonly prioritized, followed by the operational and implementation research. Two COVID-19 related questions were ranked within the top 20. There were clear differences in priorities between HIC and LMIC respondents, and academics vs non-academics.
Conclusions:
Operational research on health system capacities, and evaluating optimized delivery of existing treatments, diagnostics and case management approaches are needed. This list should act as a catalyst for collaborative research, especially to meet the top priority in preventing neonatal pneumonia, and encourage multi-disciplinary partnerships.
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