Pediatric Randomized Clinical Trials Research Articles

Benefits of Physical Exercise as Approach to Prevention and Reversion of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Children and Adolescents with Obesity.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an important health concern during childhood; indeed, it is the most frequent cause of chronic liver diseases in obese children. No valid pharmacological therapies for children affected by this condition are available, and the recommended treatment is lifestyle modification, usually including nutrition and exercise interventions. In this narrative review, we summarized up-to-date information on the benefits of physical exercise on NAFLD in children and adolescents with obesity. The role of exercise as non-pharmacological treatment was emphasized in order to provide recent advances on this topic for clinicians not deeply involved in the field. Several studies on obese children and adults confirm the positive role of physical activity (PA) in the treatment of NAFLD, but to date, there are no pediatric randomized clinical trials on exercise versus usual care. Among the pathogenic mechanisms involved in the PA effects on NAFLD, the main players seem to be insulin resistance and related inflammation, oxidative stress, and gut dysbiosis, but further evaluations are necessary to deeply understand whether these factors are correlated and how they synergistically act. Thus, a deeper research on this theme is needed, and it would be extremely interesting.

4552 Pediatrician Readiness to Participate in Clinical Trials: Roles of interest, barriers and interventions

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Clinical trials are the gold standard for developing evidence-based medicine. However, 20% of pediatric randomized clinical trials are discontinued and about 30% of completed trials go unpublished. (Pica and Bourgeois, 2016) Although patient recruitment is the most cited barrier to completing clinical trials, trials funded by academia are more likely discontinued compared to those funded by industry. This study is an attempt to gain additional insights into clinical trials in academic pediatrics. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Junior pediatrics faculty (Instructors and Assistant Professors) were recruited to participate in an online survey through RedCAP. The physicians were asked if they had prior experiences with clinical trials and whether they have interest in participating in clinical trials. Those interested were asked three additional questions: what role they were interested in, barriers to participating and interventions they thought would educate them about participating in clinical trials. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Ninety two (92) out of 119 (77%) junior pediatrics faculty completed the survey. Twenty (20) pediatric subspecialties were represented and respondents were on various academic pathways. A third of the respondents (35%) had previously participated in clinical trials. A majority of the faculty respondents (84; 70%) are on the clinical educator pathway. The 13 respondents who were not interested in clinical trials indicated their preference for patient care, education and quality improvement. Of those interested in clinical trials, the top three preferred roles were site co-investigator (68%), help designing future protocol (47%) and site principal investigator (44%). Other than time, the top barriers to participation were a lack of awareness of what it takes to lead or engage in clinical trials (53%) and a lack of training on clinical trials (45%). Mentoring from an experienced clinical trialist emerged as the top preferred intervention (78%). DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Although limited to one institution, the findings of this study provide insights into pediatric faculty interest in clinical trials. If academic pediatricians are provided with mentoring, there could be an uptick in completed and published clinical trials involving pediatric populations.

Discontinuation and Nonpublication of Randomized Clinical Trials Conducted in Children.

Trial discontinuation and nonpublication represent potential waste in research resources and lead to compromises in medical evidence. Pediatric trials may be particularly vulnerable to these outcomes given the challenges encountered in conducting trials in children. We aimed to determine the prevalence of discontinuation and nonpublication of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) conducted in pediatric populations. Retrospective, cross-sectional study of pediatric RCTs registered in ClinicalTrials.gov from 2008 to 2010. Data were collected from the registry and associated publications identified (final search on September 1, 2015). Of 559 trials, 104 (19%) were discontinued early, accounting for an estimated 8369 pediatric participants. Difficulty with patient accrual (37%) was the most commonly cited reason for discontinuation. Trials were less likely to be discontinued if they were funded by industry compared with academic institutions (odds ratio [OR] 0.46, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.27-0.77). Of the 455 completed trials, 136 (30%) were not published, representing 69 165 pediatric participants. Forty-two unpublished trials posted results on ClinicalTrials.gov. Trials funded by industry were more than twice as likely to result in nonpublication at 24 and 36 months (OR 2.21, 95% CI 1.35-3.64; OR 3.12, 95% CI 1.6-6.08, respectively) and had a longer mean time to publication compared with trials sponsored by academia (33 vs 24 months, P < .001). In this sample of pediatric RCTs, discontinuation and nonpublication were common, with thousands of children exposed to interventions that did not lead to informative or published findings. Trial funding source was an important determinant of these outcomes, with both academic and industry sponsors contributing to inefficiencies.

Nonpublication of pediatric RCTs twice as high for industry as academic‐sponsored trials

Pediatric randomized clinical trials (RCTs) have specific challenges that can lead to discontinuation and nonpublication. Researchers looked at the prevalence of these and found that industry‐sponsored trials are less likely to be discontinued, probably due to the greater access to financial resources compared to academic trials. They also found that industry‐sponsored trials are more than twice as likely to go unpublished compared to academic trials, contributing to publication bias.

Potential barriers to randomized clinical trials in infants with brachial plexus birth palsy.

Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are the gold standard for comparing medical treatments. However, pediatric surgical RCTs are uncommon. We sought the opinions of parents whose children had undergone reconstructive nerve surgery on participating in research studies. Twenty-nine of 30 parents indicated that they would enroll their child in a research study, and 24 of them indicated that they would enroll their child in a surgical RCT. However, the most common reason for willingness to participate was a desire to help their child, demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of RCTs. The burden is on the researcher to ascertain the subject's level of understanding before consenting to randomization.

Placebo-controlled trials in pediatrics and the child's best interest.

For too long children have received medicines not sufficiently studied for their needs and, in fact, being considered as small replicas of adults, it was deemed sufficient to adjust the dosage of a drug approved for adults. Together with the limited availability of appropriate drug formulations, especially for neonates and toddlers, this approach has caused increased iatrogenic risk and/or suboptimal adherence to treatment. With the aim of encouraging the development of more efficacious and safer medicines for children, the Regulatory Agencies in Europe and U.S.A. commendably issued directives to promote adequate and well controlled pediatric clinical trials. In compliance with the agenda of the Pediatric Regulation, in the past decade the number of pediatric patients enrolled in double-blind randomized clinical trials (RCTs) is markedly increased. In order to establish the efficacy of new medicines, RCTs frequently include a placebo-control group that carries the burden of additional, and to some extent underestimated, ethical concerns with respect to trials in adults. Six years into the Pediatric Regulation implementation, off-patent drugs, most of which at present are extensively used off-label, are underrepresented in ongoing/proposed pediatric RCTs. We debate this status quo to assess what might be the child’s best interest. In fact, we argue that well-designed studies, in which efficacy and safety of new drugs are compared to off-patent drugs that are currently prescribed off-label, would achieve the aim of the Pediatric Regulation better and more ethically than placebo controlled RCTs.

Empirical Evaluation of Age Groups and Age-Subgroup Analyses in Pediatric Randomized Trials and Pediatric Meta-analyses

An important step toward improvement of the conduct of pediatric clinical research is the standardization of the ages of children to be included in pediatric trials and the optimal age-subgroups to be analyzed. We set out to evaluate empirically the age ranges of children, and age-subgroup analyses thereof, reported in recent pediatric randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and meta-analyses. First, we screened 24 RCTs published in Pediatrics during the first 6 months of 2011; second, we screened 188 pediatric RCTs published in 2007 in the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials; third, we screened 48 pediatric meta-analyses published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews in 2011. We extracted information on age ranges and age-subgroups considered and age-subgroup differences reported. The age range of children in RCTs published in Pediatrics varied from 0.1 to 17.5 years (median age: 5; interquartile range: 1.8-10.2) and only 25% of those presented age-subgroup analyses. Large variability was also detected for age ranges in 188 RCTs from the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and only 28 of those analyzed age-subgroups. Moreover, only 11 of 48 meta-analyses had age-subgroup analyses, and in 6 of those, only different studies were included. Furthermore, most of these observed differences were not beyond chance. We observed large variability in the age ranges and age-subgroups of children included in recent pediatric trials and meta-analyses. Despite the limited available data, some age-subgroup differences were noted. The rationale for the selection of particular age-subgroups deserves further study.

A feasibility trial of a video intervention to improve informed consent for parents of children with leukemia

Research on parental understanding of informed consent for pediatric randomized clinical trials (RCTs) has highlighted weaknesses in understanding of key aspects of informed consent. The goals of the current study were to assess the feasibility of and parental satisfaction with a video intervention to improve informed consent for pediatric leukemia RCTs and to compare parental question asking during informed consent conferences (ICCs) for parents in the current study with historical control data. A 20-min video was produced. Utilizing the principles of anticipatory guidance, it included information delivered by nurses and physicians about leukemia and key aspects of informed consent. Parents were encouraged to be active participants in ICCs. Participants included 12 parents of children newly diagnosed with pediatric leukemia. The video was viewed by local pediatric oncologists prior to utilization with families. Ninety-two percent of parents reported that the video made it easier to understand information that their child's physician later provided; 83% of parents reported that it helped them to think of questions to ask the physician; and 67% of parents indicated that the video made them feel more comfortable with asking questions of the physician. Results of a t-test comparing question asking during ICCs revealed that parents who participated in the intervention asked a higher rate of questions than parents from a historical control sample (t = 1.95, P = 0.05). Our study supports the feasibility and potential efficacy of a brief video intervention employing anticipatory guidance to prepare parents for future discussions about RCTs.

Recommending Randomized Trials for Pediatric Leukemia: Observer and Physician Report of Recommendations

Physicians' presentation of treatment options in a non-coercive manner is critical for informed consent for participation in randomized clinical trials (RCTs). This study examined discrepancies between observer and physician report of treatment recommendations for pediatric leukemia RCTs. This study also assessed relationships between recommendations and decisions to participate in RCTs. Participants were 104 parents of children with leukemia and the treating physicians. Measures included observations of informed consent conferences (ICCs), physician report of treatment recommendations, and parent report of trial participation. Observation revealed that physicians recommended RCTs in 38% of ICCs, while physicians reported recommending RCTs in 73% of ICCs. Treatment recommendations were unrelated to decisions to participate in RCTs. Results highlight the importance of enhancing parent-physician communication regarding RCT participation.

Stability of Parental Understanding of Random Assignment in Childhood Leukemia Trials: An Empirical Examination of Informed Consent

To examine stability versus change in parental understanding of random assignment in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) for pediatric leukemia and to identify factors associated with changes in understanding. Eighty-four parents of children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia or acute myeloid leukemia who were enrolled onto a pediatric leukemia RCT at one of six US children's hospitals participated. Parents were interviewed twice, once within 48 hours after the Informed Consent Conference (ICC; time 1 [T1]) and again 6 months later (time 2 [T2]). Interviews focused on parental understanding of key components of the RCT, including random assignment. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and later analyzed. Changes in understanding of random assignment occurred in 19% of parents, with 17% of parents deteriorating in understanding from T1 to T2. Forty-nine percent of parents failed to understand random assignment at both times. Factors associated with understanding at both times included majority ethnicity, high socioeconomic status, parental reading of consent document, and presence of a nurse during the ICC. Physician discussion of specific components of the RCT was also associated with understanding at both times. Female caregivers and parents of low socioeconomic status were overrepresented among those who showed decay in understanding from T1 to T2. Parents showed little gain in understanding over time. Factors that predicted understanding at diagnosis as well as sustained understanding over time may be important intervention targets. Attention to both modifiable and nonmodifiable barriers is important for clinical practice.