Recruiting for Pragmatic Clinical Trials: Evaluation of Recruitment Methods used in the ACCESS Trial
Date
2018-09-23
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Publisher
University of Calgary
Abstract
Recruitment continues to be quite challenging for clinical researchers. The prevalence of the issue is commonly cited in literature; however, little research has been done on identifying the most cost-effective, efficient, and successful ways to recruit people (especially of hard to reach demographics) into studies. Using data from the Assessing outcomes of enhanced Chronic disease Care through patient Education and a value-baSed formulary Study (ACCESS Study), we identified 14 major recruitment strategies used in this study. Out of which we found Pharmacies was the most expensive ($151,100 CAD) and recruited the most participants (n=1217), while Unpaid Media and Word of Mouth had the lowest costs per enrolled participants ($4/pt and $5/pt respectively). Additionally, we found that the mail strategies were very inefficient at getting people interested/enrolled in the study (0.8% of all people contacted by mail ended up enrolling); however, they were successful at recruiting certain hard-to-reach demographics (older seniors). Overall, we saw that no single strategy was able to target all the hard-to-reach demographics, as certain strategies were better for certain populations than others- possibly emphasizing the importance of variety during recruitment. This ambiguity however stresses the importance of continuing this research and understanding why certain strategies work better than others.
Description
Keywords
Clinical trials, Recruitment, Cost-effectiveness, Efficient, Successful methods, Recruiting seniors, hard to reach demographics
Citation
Kakumanu, S. (2018). Recruiting for Pragmatic Clinical Trials: Evaluation of Recruitment Methods used in the ACCESS Trial (Rep.). Calgary, AB: University of Calgary.