Paediatric anaesthesia
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Dec 2023
Randomized Controlled TrialApplication of behavioral economic strategies to enhance recruitment into a pediatric randomized clinical trial for postoperative pain relief: A randomized clinical trial.
A major challenge in conducting clinical trials is recruitment. Trial under-enrollment leads to underpowered studies. Behavioral economics offers strategies that may enhance trial recruitment. This study assessed the impact of behavioral economic strategies versus a standard biological approach to recruit children into a randomized clinical trial assessing a biofeedback-based virtual reality intervention for postoperative pain management. We hypothesized the behavioral economics-informed approach would increase enrollment into the future trial, intention to adhere to therapy, acceptability of the intervention, and perceived efficacy while decreasing perception of treatment burden and risk. ⋯ Either approach would be sufficient for patient recruitment for this type of clinical trial since the overall intention to enroll rate was 77%.