Trial reportTrials2020
Effects of the Informed Health Choices primary school intervention on the ability of children in Uganda to assess the reliability of claims about treatment effects, 1-year follow-up: a cluster-randomised trial.
Trial report in Trials, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Do studies of interventions to improve laypeople's critical thinking about health choices assess potential harms? A systematic review.BMJ open · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Quality of information in news media reports about the effects of health interventions: Systematic review and meta-analyses.F1000Research · 2021Pooled it
- Trial
- Trial
- Feasibility of contextualizing the Informed Health Choices learning resources in Italy: A pilot study in a primary school in Florence.F1000Research · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Feasibility and Methodological Reflections From the Co-Creation of a Randomized Controlled Trial (The Kid's Trial): Decentralized, Child-Led Citizen-Science Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Interventions to promote critical health literacy: a scoping review.Health promotion international · 2026Article
- Exploring school nurses' potential to strengthen young people's resilience to misinformation by promoting critical health literacy in Norway.Health promotion international · 2026Article
- Knowledge-driven or motivation-driven? Validation and comparison of health participation pathways across different elementary grade levels.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Teaching critical thinking about health information and choices in secondary schools: human-centred design of digital resources.F1000Research · 2023Article
- Prioritisation of Informed Health Choices (IHC) key concepts to be included in lower secondary school resources: A consensus study.PloS one · 2023Article
- Learning to think critically about health using digital technology in Ugandan lower secondary schools: A contextual analysis.PloS one · 2022Article
- Prioritising Informed Health Choices Key Concepts for those impacted by cancer: a protocol.HRB open research · 2022Article
- Teaching critical thinking about health using digital technology in lower secondary schools in Rwanda: A qualitative context analysis.PloS one · 2021Article
- Teaching and learning how to make informed health choices: Protocol for a context analysis in Spanish primary schools.F1000Research · 2021Article
- The Norwegian public's ability to assess treatment claims: results of a cross-sectional study of critical health literacy.F1000Research · 2020Article
- Learning to make informed health choices: Protocol for a pilot study in schools in Barcelona.F1000Research · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionWe evaluated an intervention designed to teach 10- to 12-year-old primary school children to assess claims about the effects of treatments (any action intended to maintain or improve health). We report outcomes measured 1 year after the intervention.
methodsIn this cluster-randomised trial, we included primary schools in the central region of Uganda that taught year 5 children (aged 10 to 12 years). We randomly allocated a representative sample of eligible schools to either an intervention or control group. Intervention schools received the Informed Health Choices primary school resources (textbooks, exercise books and a teachers' guide). The primary outcomes, measured at the end of the school term and again after 1 year, were the mean score on a test with two multiple-choice questions for each of the 12 concepts and the proportion of children with passing scores.
resultsWe assessed 2960 schools for eligibility; 2029 were eligible, and a random sample of 170 were invited to recruitment meetings. After recruitment meetings, 120 eligible schools consented and were randomly assigned to either the intervention group (n = 60 schools; 76 teachers and 6383 children) or the control group (n = 60 schools; 67 teachers and 4430 children). After 1 year, the mean score in the multiple-choice test for the intervention schools was 68.7% compared with 53.0% for the control schools (adjusted mean difference 16.7%; 95% CI, 13.9 to 19.5; P < 0.00001). In the intervention schools, 3160 (80.1%) of 3943 children who completed the test after 1 year achieved a predetermined passing score (≥ 13 of 24 correct answers) compared with 1464 (51.5%) of 2844 children in the control schools (adjusted difference, 39.5%; 95% CI, 29.9 to 47.5).
conclusionUse of the learning resources led to a large improvement in the ability of children to assess claims, which was sustained for at least 1 year.
trial registrationPan African Clinical Trial Registry (www.pactr.org), PACTR201606001679337. Registered on 13 June 2016.
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