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Factors Influencing Parental Willingness to Consent to a Survey Study for Patients in the Pediatric Emergency
Kayleigh Fischer1, Gabriella B Smith2, Sofia E Luna3
1From the Department of Emergency Medicine, McGovern Medical School, Houston, TX.
Insights
Parental consent for pediatric research in emergency departments (EDs) is high. However, prior research participation by a child was linked to decreased parental willingness to consent for future studies.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Clinical Research Ethics
- Parental Decision-Making
Background:
- Parental consent is crucial for pediatric research.
- Understanding factors influencing consent is vital for ethical research conduct.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify factors influencing parental consent for pediatric research in emergency departments (EDs).
- To explore parental willingness to enroll children in research studies.
Main Methods:
- Prospective study approaching parents in a pediatric ED for hypothetical research participation.
- Utilized bivariate analysis and logistic regression to assess consent factors.
- Parents completed a survey post-debriefing to identify influencing factors.
Main Results:
- High consent rates (89.6%) for hypothetical pediatric research.
- Previous child participation in research significantly decreased parental consent odds (OR 0.013, P < 0.001).
- Bivariate analysis showed associations with ED length of stay and travel time, not significant in regression.
Conclusions:
- A majority of parents are willing to consent for their children's research participation in ED settings.
- Prior research experience in children negatively impacts parental consent for new studies.
- Findings can inform strategies to enhance recruitment and address parental concerns in pediatric research.
Objective:
To identify factors that impact parental willingness to consent to research studies conducted for their children during visits to pediatric emergency departments (EDs).
Methods:
Parents and guardians of children receiving care in our pediatric ED were approached and asked if they would be willing to let their child participate in a research study requiring the child to complete an electronic questionnaire. No such questionnaire existed, however, because the primary purpose was to ascertain the parent's willingness to let their child participate. All parents were debriefed and informed of the true purpose of the study and asked to complete a survey themselves to help understand factors that influenced their initial decision of whether to consent. Bivariate tests and logistic regression were used to evaluate unadjusted and adjusted associations between parent and patient characteristics and parental consent decision.
Results:
We approached 431 eligible parents about the hypothetical research study involving their children, and 386 (89.6%) consented for their children to participate. After the debriefing, 392 (91.0%) parents consented to complete the parental survey. We observed statistically significant associations between shorter length of ED stay to approach for consent for the study ( P = 0.048) as well as longer travel time ( P = 0.03) and willingness to consent in bivariate analysis, though this did not hold in regression analysis. Regression analysis revealed parents of children who have previously participated in research had 79 times lower odds of consenting to participate in our study adjusted for parent race, ethnicity, actual and perceived length of stay, travel time to the ED, and altruism.
Conclusions:
A high proportion of parents consented to their child participating in research in our ED with previous child participation in research being associated with lower odds of parental consent even when adjusted for other factors. Our findings may inform future research practices and studies investigating parental perceptions and motivations surrounding research studies.
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