Completed

NCT Number: NCT01704560

Improving Measurement Of Parents' Understanding Of Research Permission

Well-informed potential subjects are presumably better able to make autonomous decisions about the risks and benefits of participating in a research study than those in possession of less information. In actuality, prior research into consent understanding suggests that longer forms offering exhaustive information may inhibit rather than promote understanding. Moreover, technical wording in tools used to measure parent understanding of research permission may also lead to inhibition of understanding. This study will test the hypothesis that, among parents of potential subjects for greater-than-minimal-risk research, two modified and simplified subset of questions from the Deaconess Informed Consent Comprehension Test (DICCT), one oral and open-ended and one written and multiple choice, will increase subject understanding of the nature and risks of the research. The study will enroll the parents of 40 potential neonatal research subjects with an interim analysis of data at 20 subjects. Subjects will review a sham research permission form and will be randomized 1:1 to complete one of the two modified comprehension tests in addition to the DICCT (gold-standard) test. Parents will be given an open-ended survey after the tests in order to qualitatively describe their opinions of each test. A subset of parents who have received the written form will also undergo a cognitive interview about the form. A similar subset will also be given an open-ended survey about a proposed permission form cover sheet. The primary outcome will be the correlation of scores between the DICCT and modified comprehension tests, following the sham informed consent process.

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Key information

Conditions

Improve Parent Understanding of Research Permission

Age range

18 year–45 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, United States

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

Parents of potential subjects eligible for a NICHD Neonatal Research Network (NRN) interventional trial ("Hydrocortisone/Extubation") or greater-than-minimal risk observational trial ("PROP")
Permission being sought for a qualifying study
English speaking

Exclusion criteria

Permission has not been previously sought for another qualifying study
Illiteracy (unable to read simple forms)

Treatment and study plan

Coversheet to Informed Consent

Other

The intervention is a one page cover sheet to be affixed to the front of the standard permission form for the trial for which permission is being sought (attached to application). The form will identify the study as research and contain sections that include investigator contact information, the purpose of the study, a brief description of the study procedures, the alternatives, the voluntary nature, the risks, the potential benefits, a discussion of privacy and confidentiality, the costs and the payments. Each topic will also contain a reference to the page in the consent containing the full description of the topic. The form is designed to have a reading level no higher than 6th to 8th grade. Parents will also receive the full permission form, and all required signatures will still be collected on the permission form.

Primary outcomes

DICCT Questionnaire

Time frame: Within 2 weeks after being approached for participation.

Score on the post-permission DICCT questionnaire. The DICCT is scored on a 28 point scale, with each of 14 parameters being scored as 0 = incorrect, 1 = partially correct, 2 = correct. The DICCT, in addition to being previously validated, has other advantages. It contains questions that are not directly addressed in the cover sheet, but addressed in the full permission form, such as compensation for injury. These items will serve as valuable internal controls. The DICCT is easily adaptable to written answers, which makes it ideal for further modification in future studies.

The DICCT will be administered during a structured interview, without a time limit. The parent will be allowed to refer to the permission form to answer the questions.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of Rochester