New regulations have stated that it is important to assess the acceptability of medicines designed for children but it is really difficult to know which methods to use.

I am celebrating the publication of a review article on this topic:

Methodology Used to Assess Acceptability of Oral Pediatric Medicines: A Systematic Literature Search and Narrative Review

This study looked at the range of methods used to see which are of use – hedonic scales are often used and seem to be the most appropriate but it is important that the faces match the responses from a child. Often pain scales include children crying and we very much hope that the taste of a medicine does not result in tears. There are also some cultural considerations as some scales have faces winking or sticking out the tongue which can have very different meanings for children (and adults) globally.

There are also studies that used gender specific scales but this seems to add to the confusion…

It is important to review all the information to make sure that data collected is of value