Parents' Knowledge and Perception of Benefits and Risks Regarding Neonatal Circumcision

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Circumcision

In brief

The American Academy of Pediatrics changed their stance on circumcision to "health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks and that the procedure's benefits justify access to this procedure for families who choose it" (AAP, 2012). We wonder if parents are aware of guidelines such as those of the AAP. Are parents able to make this medical decision by weighing the risks against the benefits of circumcision, or do they simply use sociocultural/religious reasons to make this decision? We hypothesize that parents are unaware of the specific benefits and risks of circumcision, and make this decision based primarily on sociocultural, religious, and/or familial norms. Expectant parents' knowledge will be assessed via a Qualtrics survey. Participants will be recruited in the OB/GYN clinic sometime between their 24-28 week prenatal visit. We hope to accrue at least 680 participants for this study in order to achieve statistical significance and acquire a range of demographics. Expectant mothers and fathers (and single mothers) will be encouraged to participate. This survey will assess their desire to get their child circumcised when they are born. Participants will be asked to list perceived risks and benefits of circumcision. This will hopefully allow us to see two things: if parents are aware and knowledgeable of the risks and benefits or circumcision, and what they perceive to be risky or beneficial from a medical standpoint. Parents will be randomly given 1 of 2 pieces of information (1 per couple \[or per single mother\]; 1 control, 1 experiment) with different information about circumcision. We will see if there are any outcome differences based on which group the couple randomized into. Follow-up phone call will serve to assess outcome if baby was circumcised and any factors that led up to the decision. This will allow us to see if the AAP stance has any effect on decision making when we compare the control and experiment groups.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT01909609

Run by

University of Michigan

People needed

680

Starts

2013-07-01

Expected to finish

2017-06-16

Last updated by the study team

2019-08-05

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Subjects will be recruited from the Obstetrics clinic. All expectant parents of children are eligible to participate in this study. The study team will include those who do not know the sex of their baby and later exclude those who ultimately have girls from the final survey.

You may not qualify if…

• Exclusion is limited to parents with a child that has had a genital anomaly identified via ultrasound before the time of the research study, and parents that definitively know they are having girls.

Where it is running

• University of Michigan Health System — Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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