Johnson David A, Rose F D, Brooks B M, Eyers S
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, 3 Rillbank Terrace, Edinburgh EH9 1LL, Scotland, UK.
Pediatr Rehabil. 2003 Apr-Jun;6(2):103-9. doi: 10.1080/1363849031000166730.
Despite considerable scientific evidence to the contrary, many medical practitioners maintain that children recover from brain injury better than adults. This belief, which is commonly referred to as the "Kennard Principle", has important ramifications for personal injury compensation claims in which the amount of financial damages claimed is partly based on medical experts' prognoses for recovery and long-term outcome. The present study investigated whether legal practitioners' beliefs are consistent with those of medical practitioners. Lawyers were asked to estimate their confidence in consultant neurologists' estimates of recovery in four clinically-based but fictitious case studies which differed only in the reported age of the patient. The lawyers showed more confidence in estimates which coincided with the Kennard Principle than those which did not. These results support previous findings in showing widespread belief that "younger is better" in recovery from brain injury. In consequence, it is likely that financial compensation for children with brain injury is currently being underestimated in litigation, thereby prejudicing the long-term outcome of the child.
尽管有大量相反的科学证据，但许多医学从业者坚持认为儿童比成人从脑损伤中恢复得更好。这种观点通常被称为“肯纳德原则”，对人身伤害赔偿索赔具有重要影响，在这类索赔中，索赔的经济损害赔偿金额部分基于医学专家对恢复情况和长期预后的预测。本研究调查了法律从业者的观点是否与医学从业者一致。在四个基于临床但虚构的案例研究中，要求律师评估他们对神经科顾问医生关于恢复情况估计的信心，这些案例研究仅在报告的患者年龄上有所不同。与不符合肯纳德原则的估计相比，律师们对符合该原则的估计表现出更大的信心。这些结果支持了之前的研究发现，即普遍认为脑损伤恢复中“年龄越小越好”。因此，目前在诉讼中，对脑损伤儿童的经济赔偿可能被低估，从而损害了儿童的长期预后。
