Kling Johanna, Nordgreen Tine, Kvalem Ingela L, Williamson Heidi, Feragen Kristin B
Centre for Rare Disorders, Rikshospitalet, Oslo University Hospital HF, Norway.
Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway.
Contemp Clin Trials Commun. 2021 Nov 18;24:100869. doi: 10.1016/j.conctc.2021.100869. eCollection 2021 Dec.
Online interventions have the potential to reach individuals who are otherwise difficult to engage due to stigma and sensitive topics. However, these individuals also tend to be hard to recruit in clinical trials, a crucial step in order to provide evidence-based interventions. This highlights a need for more information about efficient recruitment strategies for difficult-to-engage groups. The present study aimed to share the systematised experiences of recruiting adolescents with a visible difference to an online psychosocial intervention RCT. With the intention to recruit 160 participants (age 12-17), recruitment efforts were nationwide and included multiple arenas (e.g., hospitals, schools, social media), and methods (e.g., in-consultation, targeted letters, posters). Ultimately, 102 participants were recruited, and results showed that recruitment involving patient organisations, hospital departments, and specialised resource centres were most successful in reaching participants. The most efficient recruitment strategy was targeted letters sent home to eligible patients/members, as 78% of the participants were recruited this way. Media and social media recruitment efforts yielded comparatively few participants. No participants were recruited through schools and educational health care services, primary health care services, or municipal and regional authorities. Our results are discussed in relation to barriers with recruiting difficult-to-engage groups to RCTs, providing useful recruitment tools to future similar studies. For instance, future studies are recommended to utilise targeted approaches over general population approaches. Also, results from recruitment efforts should routinely be reported, as this ultimately will provide more general strategies for effective recruitment and support studies in reaching recruitment goals.
在线干预有潜力覆盖那些因耻辱感和敏感话题而难以参与干预的个体。然而，这些个体在临床试验中也往往很难招募到，而临床试验是提供循证干预的关键步骤。这凸显了需要更多关于针对难以参与群体的有效招募策略的信息。本研究旨在分享在一项针对有明显差异的青少年的在线心理社会干预随机对照试验中的系统招募经验。为了招募160名参与者（年龄在12至17岁之间），招募工作在全国范围内展开，包括多个领域（如医院、学校、社交媒体）和多种方法（如会诊时招募、定向信件、海报）。最终，招募到了102名参与者，结果显示涉及患者组织、医院科室和专门资源中心的招募在接触参与者方面最为成功。最有效的招募策略是向符合条件的患者/成员家中发送定向信件，因为78%的参与者是通过这种方式招募到的。媒体和社交媒体的招募工作招募到的参与者相对较少。没有通过学校、教育医疗服务机构、初级医疗服务机构或市和地区当局招募到参与者。我们结合在随机对照试验中招募难以参与群体的障碍对结果进行了讨论，为未来类似研究提供了有用的招募工具。例如，建议未来的研究采用针对特定人群的方法而非针对普通人群的方法。此外，应定期报告招募工作的结果，因为这最终将为有效招募提供更通用的策略，并支持研究实现招募目标。
