Health Research

5% of parents say their children have taken part in medical research. 44% of parents would consider allowing their children to participate in medical research if their children had the disease being studied.

Childhood cancer is rated as the top priority for children’s health research, with 76% of adults rating it as “very important” to improving children’s health. Diabetes (70%) is the 2nd priority, and birth defects & other genetic problems (68%) are 3rd. Priorities for children’s health research differ by parent status and by race/ethnicity of the respondent.

In the U.S., 11% of adults and 5% of children have participated in medical research. 84% of parents are unaware of medical research opportunities for children. Income, not race/ethnicity, is related to participation and awareness about medical research opportunities for kids. 

Only half of parents think media reports do a good job explaining how research affects their children. Commonly, parents complain that media reports about children’s health are  contradictory, scary and hard to understand. Parents believe that health websites are most accurate among media sources, but TV reaches them first with new information.

Safety of vaccines and medicines top the list of children’s medical research topics that parents view as very important. Research about environmental links to child health and research on cancer are viewed as more important than research on leading causes of injuries.

Only 11% of voters think they know a lot about stem cell research. About one-half of voters think embryonic stem cell research should be allowed. 72% of voters favor national over state laws for stem cell research.

77% of parents want only FDA-approved medicines for their children, but only 30% say they will allow their children to participate in research. Many parents are willing to consider children's participation in research if the risk of harm is small. 92% of parents have never been asked to have their children participate in research.

54% of adults endorsed genetic testing even if no effective treatment is available. 38% of parents were willing to have their children's DNA stored in a government biobank. Adults were more likely to store DNA in a government biobank if they support genetic testing for diseases despite the lack of available effective treatment.