Understanding preferences regarding consent for pragmatic trials in acute care

Randomized Controlled Trials 1: Design

Today's clinical practice relies on the application of well-designed clinical research, the gold standard test of an intervention being the randomized controlled trial. Principles of the randomized control trial include emphasis on the principal research question, randomization, blinding; definitions of outcome measures, of inclusion and exclusion criteria, and of co-morbid and confounding factors; enrolling an adequate sample size; planning data management and analysis; preventing challenges to trial integrity such as drop-out, drop-in, and bias. The application of pre-trial planning is stressed to ensure the proper application of epidemiological principles resulting in clinical studies that are feasible and generalizable. In addition, funding strategies and trial team composition are discussed.

Public Attitudes toward Consent When Research Is Integrated into Care-Any "Ought" from All the "Is"?

Research that is integrated into ongoing clinical activities holds the potential to accelerate the generation of knowledge to improve the health of individuals and populations. Yet integrating research into clinical care presents difficult ethical and regulatory challenges, including how or whether to obtain informed consent. Multiple empirical studies have explored patients' and the public's attitudes toward approaches to consent for pragmatic research. Questions remain, however, about how to use the resulting empirical data in resolving normative and policy debates and what kind of data warrants the most consideration. We recommend prioritizing data about what people consider acceptable with respect to consent for pragmatic research and data about people's informed, rather than initial, preferences on this subject. In addition, we advise caution regarding the weight given to majority viewpoints and identify circumstances when empirical data can be overridden. We argue that empirical data bolster normative arguments that alterations of consent should be the default in pragmatic research; waivers are appropriate only when the pragmatic research would otherwise be impracticable and has sufficiently high social value.

Parental Understanding of Research Consent Forms in the PICU: A Pilot Study

OBJECTIVES

To describe legal guardians' understanding of key concepts in a research consent form presented within 24 hours of their child's admission to the PICU and to explore legal guardians' opinions of the format (language, length) of the consent form and the overall consent process.

DESIGN

Single-center, exploratory pilot study.

SETTING

PICU at a tertiary-care hospital in Canada.

SUBJECTS

Forty-one English- and French-speaking legal guardians of children less than 18 years old, who had been admitted to the PICU within the past 24 hours and were expected to stay at least 48 hours, between October 2018 and February 2019.

INTERVENTIONS

The consent form from a previous PICU trial was given and explained to legal guardians within 24 hours of their child's admission to the PICU.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Legal guardians' understanding of key concepts in the consent form was evaluated using a questionnaire the day after the form was explained, and opinions were collected verbally and using an additional survey. The median number of questions answered incorrectly was three of seven (interquartile range = 2-4). Participants best understood the topic of the study (5% incorrect), but 80% of participants were unable to recall a single risk. The median rating of the language in the form was five of five (very easy to understand; interquartile range = 4-5), and 88% of participants said it was a reasonable length.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite positive opinions of the consent form, most legal guardians did not understand all key components of the consent information provided to them orally and in writing within 24 hours of their child's PICU admission. Future studies are required to determine barriers to understanding and explore alternative approaches to obtaining consent in this setting.