Direct Mail Recruitment to a Potential Participant Registry.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Gombosev A
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7280074 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan-Mar 01
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Direct Mail Recruitment to a Potential Participant Registry.
Gombosev Adrijana A Salazar Christian R CR Hoang Dan D Cox Chelsea G CG Gillen Daniel L DL Grill Joshua D JD
Alzheimer disease and associated disorders 20210101 1
Recruitment registries are novel tools to accelerate Alzheimer disease research accrual. Optimal methods to populate such registries remain largely unstudied. We sent postcards with 3 unique taglines (Alzheimer's Prevention Research, brain health research, general research) to 100,000 local residents aged 50 years and older to assess the effectiveness of recruiting to an online recruitment registry by mail. The postcard campaign recruited 273 new registry enrollees (0.27% overall response rate). ...[more]
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Project description:BackgroundRecruiting young adults (ages 18-35 years) into weight gain prevention intervention studies is challenging and men are particularly difficult to reach. This paper describes two studies designed to improve recruitment for a randomized trial of weight gain prevention interventions. Study 1 used a quasi-experimental design to test the effect of two types of direct mailings on their overall reach. Study 2 used a randomized design to test the effect of using targeted messages to increase recruitment of men into the trial.MethodsFor Study 1, 60,000 male and female young-adult households were randomly assigned to receive either a recruitment brochure or postcard. Visits to recruitment websites during each mailing period were used to assess response to each mailing. Study 2 focused on postcard recruitment only. These households received either a targeted or generic recruitment postcard, where targeted postcards included the word "Men" in the headline text. Response rates to each type of card were categorized based on participant report of mailing received.ResultsThe reach of the postcards and brochures were similar (421 and 386 website visits, respectively; P = 0.22). Individuals who received the brochure were more likely to initiate the online screener than those who received a postcard (P = 0.01). In Study 2, of those who completed the telephone screening, 60.9 % of men (n = 23) had received the targeted postcard as compared to the generic postcard (39.1 %, P = 0.30). The reverse was true for women (n = 62, 38.7 vs. 61.3 %, P = 0.08).ConclusionsThese studies suggest there was little difference in the reach of postcards versus brochures. However, recipients of brochures were more likely to continue to the next stage of study participation. As expected, men's response to the weight gain prevention messages was lower than women's response; but using targeted messages appears to have modestly increased the proportion of male respondents. These studies add to the limited experimental literature on recruitment messaging and provide further indication for using targeted messages to reach underrepresented populations while providing initial evidence on the effect of mailing type on message reach.Trial registrationThe Study of Novel Approaches to Weight Gain Prevention was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (identifier: NCT01183689 ) on 13 August 2010.
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Project description:Meeting recruitment targets for clinical trials and health research studies is a notable challenge. Unsuccessful efforts to recruit participants from traditionally underserved populations can limit who benefits from scientific discovery, thus perpetuating inequities in health outcomes and access to care. In this study, we evaluated direct mail and email outreach campaigns designed to recruit women who gave birth in North Carolina for a statewide research study offering expanded newborn screening for a panel of rare health conditions. Of the 54,887 women who gave birth in North Carolina from September 28, 2018, through March 19, 2019, and were eligible to be included on the study's contact lists, we had access to a mailing address for 97.9% and an email address for 6.3%. Rural women were less likely to have sufficient contact information available, but this amounted to less than a one percentage point difference by urbanicity. Native American women were less likely to have an email address on record; however, we did not find a similar disparity when recruitment using direct-mail letters and postcards was concerned. Although we sent letters and emails in roughly equal proportion by urbanicity and race/ethnicity, we found significant differences in enrollment across demographic subgroups. Controlling for race/ethnicity and urbanicity, we found that direct-mail letters and emails were effective recruitment methods. The enrollment rate among women who were sent a recruitment letter was 4.1%, and this rate increased to 5.0% among women who were also sent an email invitation. Study Highlights WHAT IS THE CURRENT KNOWLEDGE ON THE TOPIC? Under-representation by traditionally underserved populations in clinical trials and health research is a challenge that may in part reflect inequitable opportunities to participate. WHAT QUESTION DID THIS STUDY ADDRESS? Are direct-mail and email outreach strategies effective for reaching and recruiting women from traditionally underserved and rural populations to participate in large-scale, population-based research? WHAT DOES THIS STUDY ADD TO OUR KNOWLEDGE? Despite sending recruitment letters and email invitations in roughly equal proportion by urbanicity and race/ethnicity, women living in rural areas were less likely to enroll (2.8%) than women from urban areas (4.2%). Additionally, enrollment rates decreased as the probability that women were members of a racial or ethnic minority group increased. HOW MIGHT THIS CHANGE CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY OR TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE? Results from this study might encourage researchers to take a holistic and participant-centered view of barriers to study enrollment that may disproportionately affect underserved communities, including differences in willingness to participate, trust, and access to resources needed for uptake.
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Project description:BACKGROUND:Recruitment for Alzheimer's disease (AD)-focused studies, particularly prevention studies, is challenging due to the public's lack of awareness about study opportunities coupled with studies' inclusion and exclusion criteria, resulting in a high screen fail rate. OBJECTIVES:To develop an internet-based participant recruitment registry for efficiently and effectively raising awareness about AD-focused study opportunities and connecting potentially eligible volunteers to studies in their communities. METHODS:Individuals age 18 and older are eligible to join the Alzheimer's Prevention Registry (APR). Individuals provide first and last name, year of birth, country, and zip/postal code to join the APR; for questions regarding race, ethnicity, sex, family history of AD or other dementia, and diagnosis of cognitive impairment, individuals have the option to select "prefer not to answer." The APR website maintains a list of recruiting studies and contacts members who have opted in by email when new studies are available for enrollment. RESULTS:As of December 1, 2019, 346,661 individuals had joined the APR. Members had a mean age of 63.3 (SD 11.7) years and were predominately women (75%). 94% were cognitively unimpaired, 50% reported a family history of AD or other dementia, and of those who provided race, 76% were white. 39% joined the APR as a result of a paid social media advertisement. To date, the APR helped recruit for 82 studies. CONCLUSIONS:The APR is a large, internet-based participant recruitment registry designed to raise awareness about AD prevention research and connect members with enrolling studies in their communities. It has demonstrated the ability to recruit and engage a large number of highly motivated members and assist researchers in meeting their recruitment goals. Future publications will report on the effectiveness of APR for accelerating recruitment and enrollment into AD-focused studies.
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Project description:In Alzheimer's disease (AD) research patients are usually recruited from clinical practice, memory clinics or nursing homes. Lack of standardised inclusion and diagnostic criteria is a major concern in current AD studies. The aim of the study was to explore whether patient characteristics differ between study samples recruited from general practice and from a population based screening by mail within the same geographic areas in rural Northern Norway.An interventional study in nine municipalities with 70000 inhabitants was designed. Patients were recruited from general practice or by population based screening of cognitive function by mail. We sent a questionnaire to 11807 individuals > or = 65 years of age of whom 3767 responded. Among these, 438 individuals whose answers raised a suspicion of cognitive impairment were invited to an extended cognitive and clinical examination. Descriptive statistics, chi-square, independent sample t-test and analyses of covariance adjusted for possible confounders were used.The final study samples included 100 patients recruited by screening and 87 from general practice. Screening through mail recruited younger and more self-reliant male patients with a higher MMSE sum score, whereas older women with more severe cognitive impairment were recruited from general practice. Adjustment for age did not alter the statistically significant differences of cognitive function, self-reliance and gender distribution between patients recruited by screening and from general practice.Different recruitment procedures of individuals with cognitive impairment provided study samples with different demographic characteristics. Initial cognitive screening by mail, preceding extended cognitive testing and clinical examination may be a suitable recruitment strategy in studies of early stage AD. CLINICAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrial.gov Identifier: NCT00443014.
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Project description:ObjectiveNovel nicotine and tobacco products, including heated tobacco products (HTPs) like IQOS, are growing in global popularity. IQOS was the first HTP authorized for sale by the US Food and Drug Administration, entering the US market in 2019 and being removed in 2021 due to patent-related legal challenges, with the possibility of returning in 2024. Direct marketing is one method tobacco companies use to reach consumers of these products. The purpose of this study was to investigate the content of US IQOS direct mail and email marketing.MethodsDirect marketing items were collected between September 2019 and July 2021 by seven team members in the first US IQOS test market, Atlanta, Georgia.ResultsOverall, 101 marketing items were collected, 59 of which were unique. Among the unique items that showed images of persons ("models"), 70 % showed models appearing to be from racial/ethnic minoritized groups, 86.8 % showed at least one female-presenting model, and 37.5 % showed models appearing to be young adults (18-29 years). Items often had an embedded link/URL (91.5 %) and mentioned topics such as online services (54.2 %; for example, online ordering and tutorials), user experience (49.2 %), social media (44.1 %), and purchasing locations (37.3 %). When examined for their main purpose, items focused on subjects such as store experience (37.7 %), product introduction (18.6 %), and product use (15.3 %).ConclusionsOur study highlights the importance of better understanding how novel tobacco products are marketed, which can inform policymakers' regulatory efforts and product authorization decisions.
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