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Table 1 Participants

From: Development of the informed health choices resources in four countries to teach primary school children to assess claims about treatment effects: a qualitative study employing a user-centred approach

Participants

Description

Researchers, teachers and journalists from several countries

The initial brainstorming session at the kick-off meeting for the project included 18 people from Indonesia, Nepal, Norway, Uganda, and the United Kingdom with various backgrounds, including teachers, journalists, medical doctors, information designers, anthropologists, public health specialists, and health service researchers.

A national advisory board in Uganda

The advisory board for the project included fifteen members (2 women and 13 men) representing various stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (which is responsible for children’s affairs in Uganda), and representatives from civil society and local government.

A teachers’ network in Uganda

The teachers’ network included 24 Ugandan primary school teachers (10 women and 14 men) in active practice from both rural and urban schools that were either government or privately owned [19].

Schools in Uganda

Of the five schools that participated in both phases of the development process (pilot and user-testing), four were government (public) schools and one was a private school. One of the government schools was one of the biggest schools in the country, with a teacher-student ratio of 1:250. The other three government schools were of typical size, with a teacher-student ratio of 1:120. The private school was small, with a teacher-student ratio of 1:35, in comparison to the average Uganda school with a teacher student ration of 1:70. For logistic purposes (travel by the investigators), three of the schools that participated were located in the Kampala urban area and two were in the semi-urban area surrounding Kampala. All of the schools were poorly equipped. Lessons were in English, although English was not the primary language spoken at home for most of the children. All of the classes were year-5, for which the official starting age is 10.

A school in Kenya

The school in Kenya was a government school with about 400 children attending year-1 to year-8 classes. The year-5 children were mostly between 10 and 14 years old.

A school in Rwanda

The school in Rwanda was a government (public) primary and secondary school with over 3000 children. The language of instruction was English and the age range for year-5 children was 10 to 15 years old.

Children in Norway

A convenience sample of four 12-year-old girls who knew each other, from a nearby school participated in piloting a series of eight games together with the research team, partly in Norwegian and partly in English.

A school in Norway

The school in Norway was a private international school, with 18 children in each class. It was well equipped. Lessons were in English, although English was not the primary language spoken at home for most of the children. The three classes were year-7, for which the typical starting age is 11.