Community engagement strategies improve recruitment and enrollment in a pragmatic clinical trial.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Rural communities make up 19% of the US population, yet are underrepresented in clinical trials. Community engagement methods can facilitate collaboration and trust with local healthcare personnel to enhance enrollment. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe community engagement methods and their impact on enrollment in a pragmatic clinical trial.

Methods

We describe a variety of methods used in the Fibromyalgia TENS in Physical Therapy Study (FM-TIPS) to enhance enrollment in rural communities and low-enrolling clinics. Community engagement methods were implemented partway through the trial for selected groups: Targeted Rural (TR) (n = 10), Targeted Low Enrolling (TLE) (n = 6), and compared to Untargeted Groups (UT) (n = 13). The imp

SUBMITTER: Vance KG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12444702 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature