Digital tools for the recruitment and retention of participants in randomised controlled trials: a systematic map
Open Access
- 5 June 2020
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Trials
- Vol. 21 (1), 1-23
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-020-04358-3
Abstract
Recruiting and retaining participants in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) is challenging. Digital tools, such as social media, data mining, email or text-messaging, could improve recruitment or retention, but an overview of this research area is lacking. We aimed to systematically map the characteristics of digital recruitment and retention tools for RCTs, and the features of the comparative studies that have evaluated the effectiveness of these tools during the past 10 years. We searched Medline, Embase, other databases, the Internet, and relevant web sites in July 2018 to identify comparative studies of digital tools for recruiting and/or retaining participants in health RCTs. Two reviewers independently screened references against protocol-specified eligibility criteria. Included studies were coded by one reviewer with 20% checked by a second reviewer, using pre-defined keywords to describe characteristics of the studies, populations and digital tools evaluated. We identified 9163 potentially relevant references, of which 104 articles reporting 105 comparative studies were included in the systematic map. The number of published studies on digital tools has doubled in the past decade, but most studies evaluated digital tools for recruitment rather than retention. The key health areas investigated were health promotion, cancers, circulatory system diseases and mental health. Few studies focussed on minority or under-served populations, and most studies were observational. The most frequently-studied digital tools were social media, Internet sites, email and tv/radio for recruitment; and email and text-messaging for retention. One quarter of the studies measured efficiency (cost per recruited or retained participant) but few studies have evaluated people’s attitudes towards the use of digital tools. This systematic map highlights a number of evidence gaps and may help stakeholders to identify and prioritise further research needs. In particular, there is a need for rigorous research on the efficiency of the digital tools and their impact on RCT participants and investigators, perhaps as studies-within-a-trial (SWAT) research. There is also a need for research into how digital tools may improve participant retention in RCTs which is currently underrepresented relative to recruitment research. Not registered; based on a pre-specified protocol, peer-reviewed by the project’s Advisory Board.Funding Information
- National Institute for Health Research
This publication has 157 references indexed in Scilit:
- Strategies to Improve Recruitment and Retention of Older Stroke Survivors to a Randomized Clinical Exercise TrialJournal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases, 2014
- Interventions for recruiting smokers into cessation programmesEmergencias, 2012
- Implementation of the Department of Veterans Affairs' first point-of-care clinical trialJournal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 2012
- Recruiting adolescent girls into a follow-up study: Benefits of using a social networking websiteContemporary Clinical Trials, 2012
- The accuracy and efficiency of electronic screening for recruitment into a clinical trial on COPDRespiratory Medicine, 2011
- Strategies to Retain Participants in a Long-term HIV Prevention Randomized Controlled Trial: Lessons from the MINTS-II StudyAIDS and Behavior, 2011
- Overall and minority-focused recruitment strategies in the PREMIER multicenter trial of lifestyle interventions for blood pressure controlContemporary Clinical Trials, 2010
- Effects of an Internet-Based Intervention for HIV Prevention: The Youthnet TrialsAIDS and Behavior, 2008
- Effectiveness of recruitment in clinical trials: An analysis of methods used in a trial for irritable bowel syndrome patientsContemporary Clinical Trials, 2008
- Comparison of Electronic Physician Prompts versus Waitroom Case-Finding on Clinical Trial EnrollmentJournal of General Internal Medicine, 2008