Articles

Effective participant recruitment and retention is paramount to the success of a study. The success of even the most carefully designed and most innovative studies can fall prey to the challenges of participant recruitment.

Participant recruitment is often reported as the largest and most costly component of health research studies (1-3). However this seemingly disproportionate allocation of resources for recruitment is justified, as estimates indicate that 60 to 85% of trials do not conclude on time owing to recruitment difficulties (4 – 6). Even worse, some estimates show that 30% of trial sites fail to recruit even a single patient, and that 5% of studies are abandoned because of participant accrual difficulties (5).

The coming series of articles will be looking at ways in which these numbers could be improved, and ultimately, how to formulate the most effective recruitment strategy for your study.

Our articles are frequently updated so remember to visit regularly, and don't forget to visit our blog for more casual discussion on participant recruitment.

Help share your knowledge by submitting an article or blog post! Please contact us if you are interested.

About Participants

• Motivation for Participation
• Barriers for Participation

Using the Internet

• The Internet: Introduction to a recruitment medium
• The Internet: Ensuring a representative demographic sample

Guides

• How to present a proposal presentation
• How to write an editorial for participant recruitment

1. Chang BH, Hendricks AM, Slawsky MT, Locastro JS. Patient recruitment to a randomized clinical trial of behavioral therapy for chronic heart failure. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2004;4:8.
2. Ferland D, Fortin PR. Recruitment strategies in superiority trials in SLE: lessons from the sttidy of methotrexate in ltiptis erythematosus (SMILE). Lupus. 1999;8:606-611.
3. Walson PD. Patient recruitment: US perspective. Pediatrics. 1999; 104: 619-622.
4. Nitkin R. Patient recruitment strategies. Training workshop conducted by National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md, 2003.
5. Easterbrook PJ, Matthews DR. Fate of research studies. J R Soc Med 1992;85:71–6.
6. Charlson ME, Horwitz RI. Applying results of randomised trials to clinical practice: impact of losses before randomisation. BMJ 1984; 289:1281–4.