Clinical Research Facilitators, Barriers, and Preferences of Parents of Children With Overweight and Obesity

Recruiting, enrolling, and retaining families in pediatric obesity clinical trials is challenging. This study examined perceptions of facilitators and barriers related to clinical research, and preferences of specific research formats, in parents of a child with overweight or obesity. Associations between parental research perceptions and sociodemographic and health factors were also explored.

A descriptive, cross-sectional online survey of 103 parents of children 2 to 17 years with overweight or obesity was conducted between May 2021 and March 2022 in the southeastern US. Barriers and facilitators of research participation, child weight status, child COVID-19 health care and parental COVID-19 stress, demographic characteristics (e.g., child age, child gender, child race/ethnicity, family income, geographic location), and preferences for specific research formats (e.g., telehealth, in person, group sessions, individual sessions, COVID-19 testing, single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, and multiple-dose COVID-19 vaccine) were assessed. Linear regression analyses were conducted.

Parents endorsed more reasons and benefits for participation than mistrust, social pressure, and reasons against participation. Lower child body mass index was associated with higher perceptions of research participation benefits. Pandemic parental stress was associated with increased social pressure and benefits. Parents of non-Hispanic White and male youth endorsed more mistrust of clinical research.

Findings can inform future pediatric overweight and obesity clinical research and trial designs to enable equitable recruitment, reduce participation burden, and increase feasibility and sustainability of interventions.