Working at one of the standout research universities in the United States, we are often solicited to participate in various studies around campus, from various departments.  I'm a pro-research person, so I always look to see if I am eligible to participate.  Some are mere online surveys, and I usually participate in those if I have the time.  My oldest child participated in a linguistics study, and I blogged about the hilarious IRB consent form earlier.  I responded to a solicitation for new mothers to participate in a study comparing nursing infants with formula-fed infants, but I was told that way more nursing mothers had signed up than bottle-feeding mothers.  Next week, Will and I are going to spend 10 minutes watching a puppet show in the Psychology department as part of an infant cognition study.

However, I have my limits.  Twice now my kids have come home with a solicitation to be part of much more invasive studies.  One study was on childhood obesity, and the other was on a connection between physical activity and cognition.  Both of these research areas seem very important to the public at large.  However, both studies required way more than I could put my child through for no medical reason.  Each study seemed to be designed similarly:  my child would fast for 12 hours, then have blood drawn.  Then, my child would do a treadmill-style stress test.  I think in one study she would wear a pedometer and a heart monitor for three days.  I believe the blood test was repeated at the end of the study.  My child was quite willing to forego swim camp for three days to wear the heart monitor, but she drew the line at the blood test.  And as much as I'm pro-science, I can't force my healthy, needle-phobic child to endure pain (and the anxiety about the pain) for this study. 

I recognize that if all parents are like me, that we will continue to have gaps in our research concerning children's health.  I would love to know how many families sign up for these studies and why their kids don't balk also.  Am I a bad citizen?  Or, is it unethical to let your healthy child experience even short, temporary pain without any personal medical benefit?  (I should add that the paperwork said that the information families would receive from the assessments would be worth hundreds of dollars, so I guess if you were worried about your child's physical activity level, you might think the study was good for your child.)

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