Clinical trial NCT00592800: Understanding Probability in Children
Official title: Evaluation of the Understanding of Probability in Children
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: TERMINATED
Conditions: Understanding Probability
Keywords: statistics
probability
Lead sponsor: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Children's Anesthesiology Associates, Ltd.
First posted: 2008-01-14
Enrollment: 165
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 11
Maximum age (years): 18
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: This prospective study will involve one or two encounters with each child and a parent at the Anesthesia Resource Center (ARC) at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the second visit at CHOP during the post-operative phase of recovery prior to discharge from the hospital.

Brief summary: To make medical decisions involving pros and cons, one also has to understand probability and percentages. This is a preliminary study to evaluate the ability of children to understand probability and percentages.

Detailed description: The concept of patients making decisions with respect to their health care is well accepted in adult medicine but, the value and importance of decision making in the care of children is not recognized. The major objection raised against allowing children to express their opinions concerning outcomes is that children do not understand probability.

One way of assessing children's ability to understand probability is to test their mathematical knowledge using tests focused on probability and percentage.

We have designed a set of questionnaires with 10 questions each, taken from the US Department of Education's National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). They are divided into 3 different groups (4th, 8th, and 12th grade), based on grade-level. We have also obtained the average percentage of correct-incorrect answers given to these questions by students nationwide, and the scoring system used to assess the student's proficiency level.

In this preliminary study we intend to present this set of 10 mathematical questions to children and to one of their parents.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

1. Males or females ages 11 to 18 years.
2. Spoken and written English as primary language of both parents and children.
3. Children scheduled to receive anesthesia.
4. Parental/guardian permission (informed consent) and if appropriate, child assent.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Children with known mental retardation, of any nature.
2. Children who attend schools for children with special needs.

Primary outcomes:
measure: To compare the percentage of children who answer correctly to a set of mathematical questions to verify the ability of children to understand probability and percentages. The results will be compared to those obtained in children nationwide in 2003.
timeFrame: During pre-operative visit.
Secondary outcomes:
measure: The secondary objective is to compare the responses between children and parent.
timeFrame: During the pre-operative visit.
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
name: Arjunan Ganesh, MBBS
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: