This paper reviews the experiences of recruitment and retention within a multicentre RCT delivered in primary care. It highlights the advantages of introductory telephone calls to practices, followed by postal information and face to face meetings in achieving high retention within a trial. We invested considerable effort in establishing and maintaining recruitment and retention, using resources which may not always be available to others, but the importance of identifying resources for these aspects of a research project should not be underestimated. Below we try to distil the key components of a successful strategy. The lessons to be learned may differ, depending on the healthcare setting in which future research is to be conducted.
The active recruitment measures used allowed personal contact between researchers and practitioners and avoided mailing unsolicited information, both of which are factors which encourage research participation [
13]. The researcher's ability to engage the practitioner is central to positively facilitating decisions to participate and the vital ensuing relationship with the general practice team, especially when practices have not formerly participated in research. Previously reported practitioner recruitment rates [
12] were higher (up to 91%) when personal meetings took place as opposed to recruitment by a telephone call alone (75%). However, 78% of practitioners recruited in that study were either friends or acquaintances of the study team, rather than randomly selected practitioners.
Asking healthcare providers to recruit patients following receipt of uninvited study information has been identified as a relatively unsuccessful method of recruitment [
31]. Researchers who intend to recruit practices by posting an initial letter introducing the study are advised to ensure this is followed up with a timely phone call [
13]. One RCT which asked physicians to deliver a smoking cessation intervention reported a participation rate of 9.8% when information was posted as opposed to 59% using face-to-face recruitment efforts [
32].
Recognising time and place
The time spent by the research nurses at the outset visiting practitioners and providing training was thought to contribute to the fact that none of the patients who attended initial appointments at the practices declined participation. This, and the low rate of patient attrition, may be associated also with the initial posting of study information to patients, allowing them time to consider potential participation and discuss this with family or friends. Based on the pilot work findings, practices were encouraged to combine patient visits where possible if overlap with other chronic disease clinic attendance was identified, in order to avoid duplication of service provision and minimise patient expenses in travel and time.
It could be argued that patients with a past medical history of heart disease are sufficiently motivated to access medical interventions but previous research has reported that service uptake by these patients is less than optimal [
34,
35]. Also, using the practice address as a contact point for information and return of responses rather than an unfamiliar address was deemed to be more 'user friendly' for patients and kept the practice informed regarding replies received. Our findings suggested that this yielded a sample in which there was an absence of bias in response in respect of age and gender. We achieved a patient participation rate of 56%, considerably higher than the 38% response rate of patients with angina invited to participate in a recently reported trial [
36].
Involving practices
Our practice recruitment rate appeared lower than that (69%) in a previous study [
3] which employed a similar process but recruited individual physicians, rather than practices. We required agreement by all partners within each practice, necessitating exclusion of some individuals who were willing to take part. Also, we required the practitioners to recruit the study patients and deliver the intervention whilst some studies supply their own clinical researchers to conduct patient enrolment and the study process does not increase the normal practice workload [
37]. Our recruitment rate was similar to that reported previously in a cluster RCT exploring different methods of promoting secondary prevention of CHD (21 of 64 eligible practices; 32%) [
38] but details of the support offered within that study were scant and it did not involve patient recruitment at the outset. The generalisability of study results may be improved if more practices with low levels of interest in research activity participate [
9]. Direct financial recognition of individual practitioners' work associated with the research, rather than rewarding practices' participation in the study, may act as a more effective incentive. However, non-monetary incentives such as addressing practitioners' concerns and providing support through personal contact by the research staff may be equally encouraging [
39].
Challenges for the Future
Randomised trials continue to be an ever-increasing challenge in primary care due to difficulties in recruiting and retaining practices and patients. If the benefits of practice-based research are to be realised it is imperative that the challenges of adding research to a service that reports an expanding everyday workload [
40] are minimised. Our experiences in the SPHERE study should inform future primary care-based research studies and help improve practice and patient participation and retention. We suggest consideration of the following key issues:
1 Designing a study with clinical relevance to primary care, in accordance with current service provision.
2 Carrying out a feasibility study to identify potential problems and create awareness of healthcare organisation in proposed research settings including pre-trial qualitative data to obtain opinions from patients, practitioners and ancillary staff in the context in which the trial is to be delivered.
3 Having the research team efforts coordinated by a designated Project Manager.
4 Providing information regarding projected workloads at the outset, especially if practitioners are required to recruit and consult with the study participants.
5 Assessing practice needs initially at the recruitment stage and ongoing throughout the study via a practice care plan.
6 Providing effective, sustained communication between the research team and practice staff and patients by phone calls prior to patient reviews and by extra visits when practices experience problems such as key staff members leaving.
7 Providing ongoing written information e.g. in the form of a study newsletter reporting on study progress, discussing issues which arise, and acknowledging the efforts of practice staff.
8 Assisting practices with administration generated by the study including helping contact defaulting patients and posting out appointments.
9 Recording study data by research nurse rather than practice staff where possible, avoiding potential for observation bias.
10 Working collaboratively and supporting practice staff, with speedy resolution of practice and patient queries.
11 Facilitating practitioners' and patients' study participation by ensuring all documentation provided is clear and user-friendly.
12 Financial acknowledgement of practice staff directly involved in the study.