About Us
What is the
COMPACT Initiative?
Anxiety disorders are common in children and youth. However, based on the available evidence, no treatment can be recommended as “optimal.” This is mainly because there is so much variability in what outcomes are measured across studies that evaluate these treatments. If we tried to pool data across studies, it would be difficult to actually compare any findings if every researcher is measuring something different. That’s where a core outcome set (COS) comes in.
A COS is a standardized, minimum set of outcomes that should be measured in all trials in a specific area of health. Beyond mental health research, COS development has resulted in enhanced research quality and ultimately a better understanding of which treatments are most effective and for whom. However, there is no COS for paediatric anxiety disorder trials!
The COMPACT Initiative is developing an evidence- and consensus-based COS for paediatric anxiety disorder trials with active engagement of youth, family members, and other stakeholders.
Why is the Initiative important?
This project will have a global impact by developing a COS for paediatric anxiety disorder trials. This harmonized COS, which will incorporate outcomes that are meaningful and impactful to youth and family, will be freely available to researchers worldwide to use. The outputs of this project will lead to improved research quality and efficiency, ultimately enabling greater understanding of what treatments work best for which patients, better child mental health outcomes and better health system utilization.
Our Goals
Our goal is to identify a core, minimal set of outcomes and associated outcome measurement instruments (OMIs) for paediatric anxiety disorder trials that are meaningful, acceptable, and derived through evidence-based and consensus-based methods to ensure that outcomes that matter to key stakeholders, inclusive of youth and families, are measured in future trials using high-quality measures that trialists need.
Over the next 3 years, the COMPACT Initiative will actively engage youth and family groups, clinicians, researchers, trialists, systematic reviewers, methodologists, funders, regulators, and journal editors to identify the most important outcomes to measure in paediatric anxiety disorder trials.
Please see our Research Page for further details on our COS development plan.
