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A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of a pre-recruitment primer letter to increase participation in a study of colorectal screening and surveillance

BACKGROUND: Recruiting cancer patients is a barrier often encountered in research trials. However, very few randomized trials explore strategies to improve participation rates. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a pre-recruitment primer letter to recruit persons diagnosed...

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Autores principales: Paul, Christine, Courtney, Ryan, Sanson-Fisher, Rob, Carey, Mariko, Hill, David, Simmons, Jody, Rose, Shiho
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3975453/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24690533
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-14-44
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author Paul, Christine
Courtney, Ryan
Sanson-Fisher, Rob
Carey, Mariko
Hill, David
Simmons, Jody
Rose, Shiho
author_facet Paul, Christine
Courtney, Ryan
Sanson-Fisher, Rob
Carey, Mariko
Hill, David
Simmons, Jody
Rose, Shiho
author_sort Paul, Christine
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Recruiting cancer patients is a barrier often encountered in research trials. However, very few randomized trials explore strategies to improve participation rates. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a pre-recruitment primer letter to recruit persons diagnosed with colorectal cancer for a research trial. METHODS: Potentially eligible participants were identified by the Victorian Cancer Registry. A total of 1,062 participants were randomized to receive either a mailed explanatory primer letter designed to encourage research participation, or no primer letter. Two weeks after the intervention, the Victorian Cancer Registry sought permission from patients to release their contact details to researchers. Those who agreed were contacted and invited to the study. RESULTS: Pre-recruitment encouragement was not effective at increasing recruitment, with no significant differences demonstrated between experimental groups. Overall, 40% (n = 425) consented to participate, 25% (n = 243) refused and 35% (n = 394) did not respond. CONCLUSIONS: While this study demonstrated disappointing outcomes, pre-recruitment letters should not be ruled out as an approach altogether. Rather, future research should explore whether other factors to increase motivation, such as intensity and timing, are feasible and acceptable for contacting cancer patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12609000628246
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spelling pubmed-39754532014-04-05 A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of a pre-recruitment primer letter to increase participation in a study of colorectal screening and surveillance Paul, Christine Courtney, Ryan Sanson-Fisher, Rob Carey, Mariko Hill, David Simmons, Jody Rose, Shiho BMC Med Res Methodol Research Article BACKGROUND: Recruiting cancer patients is a barrier often encountered in research trials. However, very few randomized trials explore strategies to improve participation rates. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a pre-recruitment primer letter to recruit persons diagnosed with colorectal cancer for a research trial. METHODS: Potentially eligible participants were identified by the Victorian Cancer Registry. A total of 1,062 participants were randomized to receive either a mailed explanatory primer letter designed to encourage research participation, or no primer letter. Two weeks after the intervention, the Victorian Cancer Registry sought permission from patients to release their contact details to researchers. Those who agreed were contacted and invited to the study. RESULTS: Pre-recruitment encouragement was not effective at increasing recruitment, with no significant differences demonstrated between experimental groups. Overall, 40% (n = 425) consented to participate, 25% (n = 243) refused and 35% (n = 394) did not respond. CONCLUSIONS: While this study demonstrated disappointing outcomes, pre-recruitment letters should not be ruled out as an approach altogether. Rather, future research should explore whether other factors to increase motivation, such as intensity and timing, are feasible and acceptable for contacting cancer patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12609000628246 BioMed Central 2014-04-01 /pmc/articles/PMC3975453/ /pubmed/24690533 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-14-44 Text en Copyright © 2014 Paul et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Paul, Christine
Courtney, Ryan
Sanson-Fisher, Rob
Carey, Mariko
Hill, David
Simmons, Jody
Rose, Shiho
A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of a pre-recruitment primer letter to increase participation in a study of colorectal screening and surveillance
title A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of a pre-recruitment primer letter to increase participation in a study of colorectal screening and surveillance
title_full A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of a pre-recruitment primer letter to increase participation in a study of colorectal screening and surveillance
title_fullStr A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of a pre-recruitment primer letter to increase participation in a study of colorectal screening and surveillance
title_full_unstemmed A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of a pre-recruitment primer letter to increase participation in a study of colorectal screening and surveillance
title_short A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of a pre-recruitment primer letter to increase participation in a study of colorectal screening and surveillance
title_sort randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of a pre-recruitment primer letter to increase participation in a study of colorectal screening and surveillance
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3975453/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24690533
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-14-44
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