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. 2024 Feb:265:113840.
doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2023.113840. Epub 2023 Nov 23.

A Decade of Efforts to Add Value to Child Health Research Practices

Adrian Sammy  1 , Ami Baba  1 , Terry P Klassen  2 , David Moher  3 , Martin Offringa  4
Affiliations

A Decade of Efforts to Add Value to Child Health Research Practices

Adrian Sammy et al. J Pediatr. 2024 Feb.

Abstract

Objective: To identify practices that add value to improve the design, conduct, and reporting of child health research and reduce research waste.

Study design: In order to categorize the contributions of members of Standards for Research (StaR) in Child Health network, we developed a novel Child Health Improving Research Practices (CHIRP) framework comprised of 5 domains meant to counteract avoidable child health research waste and improve quality: 1) address research questions relevant to children, their families, clinicians, and researchers; 2) apply appropriate research design, conduct and analysis; 3) ensure efficient research oversight and regulation; 4) Provide accessible research protocols and reports; and 5) develop unbiased and usable research reports, including 17 responsible research practice recommendations. All child health research relevant publications by the 48 original StaR standards' authors over the last decade were identified, and main topic areas were categorized using this framework.

Results: A total of 247 publications were included in the final sample: 100 publications (41%) in domain 1 (3 recommendations), 77 publications (31%) in domain 2 (3), 35 publications (14%) in domain 3 (4), 20 publications (8%) in domain 4 (4), and 15 publications (6%) in domain 5 (3). We identified readily implementable "responsible" research practices to counter child health research waste and improve quality, especially in the areas of patients and families' engagement throughout the research process, developing Core Outcome Sets, and addressing ethics and regulatory oversight issues.

Conclusion: While most of the practices are readily implementable, increased awareness of methodological issues and wider guideline uptake is needed to improve child health research. The CHIRP Framework can be used to guide responsible research practices that add value to child health research.

Keywords: Child Health Clinical Trials; Responsible Research Practice; research waste.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest Conflict of Interest Disclosures (includes financial disclosures): Terry P. Klassen and Martin Offringa are StaR Child Health Steering Committee members. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. Sources of Funding: No funding was secured for this study. Dr. Terry P Klassen is supported by a Canada Research Chair in Clinical Trials. The other authors received no additional funding or support. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References