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Overcoming recruitment barriers revealed high readiness to participate and low dropout rate among people with schizophrenia in a randomized controlled trial testing the effect of a Guided Self-Determination intervention

Jorgensen, Rikke ; Munk-Jorgensen, Povl ; Lysaker, Paul H. ; Buck, Kelly D. ; Hansson, Lars LU and Zoffmann, Vibeke (2014) In BMC Psychiatry 14.
Abstract
Background: Recruitment is one of the most serious challenges in performing randomized controlled trials. Often clinical trials with participants diagnosed with schizophrenia are terminated prematurely because of recruitment challenges resulting in a considerable waste of resources in the form of time, funding, and the participants' efforts. Dropout rates in schizophrenia trials are also high. Recruitment challenges are often due to patients not wanting to participate in research but can also be due to clinicians' concerns regarding individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia as participants in research. This paper reports how overcoming recruitment challenges not related to patients revealed high readiness to take part and low dropout rates... (More)
Background: Recruitment is one of the most serious challenges in performing randomized controlled trials. Often clinical trials with participants diagnosed with schizophrenia are terminated prematurely because of recruitment challenges resulting in a considerable waste of resources in the form of time, funding, and the participants' efforts. Dropout rates in schizophrenia trials are also high. Recruitment challenges are often due to patients not wanting to participate in research but can also be due to clinicians' concerns regarding individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia as participants in research. This paper reports how overcoming recruitment challenges not related to patients revealed high readiness to take part and low dropout rates in a one year long randomized controlled trial testing Guided Self-Determination (GSD) among outpatients with schizophrenia receiving treatment in Assertive Outreach Teams in the northern part of Denmark. Methods: GSD is a shared decision-making and mutual problem-solving method using reflection sheets, which was developed in diabetes care and adjusted for this study and utilized by patients with schizophrenia. Descriptive data on strategies to overcome recruitment challenges were derived from notes and observations made during the randomized controlled trial testing of GSD in six outpatient teams. Results: Three types of recruitment challenges not related to patients were identified and met during the trial: 1) organizational challenges, 2) challenges with finding eligible participants and 3) challenges with having professionals invite patients to participate. These challenges were overcome through: 1) extension of time, 2) expansion of the clinical recruitment area and 3) encouragement of professionals to invite patients to the study. Through overcoming these challenges, we identified a remarkably high patient-readiness to take part (101 of 120 asked accepted) and a low dropout rate (8%). Conclusion: Distinction between recruitment challenges was important in discovering the readiness among patients with schizophrenia to take part in and complete a trial with the GSD-intervention. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Schizophrenia, Outpatients, Randomized controlled trial, Organization, Recruitment challenges, Strategies, Readiness
in
BMC Psychiatry
volume
14
article number
28
publisher
BioMed Central (BMC)
external identifiers
  • wos:000332673700001
  • scopus:84893186879
  • pmid:24490977
ISSN
1471-244X
DOI
10.1186/1471-244X-14-28
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a77adaa8-8610-43c8-9807-333baa640225 (old id 4414109)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 14:21:19
date last changed
2022-01-28 00:07:45
@article{a77adaa8-8610-43c8-9807-333baa640225,
  abstract     = {{Background: Recruitment is one of the most serious challenges in performing randomized controlled trials. Often clinical trials with participants diagnosed with schizophrenia are terminated prematurely because of recruitment challenges resulting in a considerable waste of resources in the form of time, funding, and the participants' efforts. Dropout rates in schizophrenia trials are also high. Recruitment challenges are often due to patients not wanting to participate in research but can also be due to clinicians' concerns regarding individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia as participants in research. This paper reports how overcoming recruitment challenges not related to patients revealed high readiness to take part and low dropout rates in a one year long randomized controlled trial testing Guided Self-Determination (GSD) among outpatients with schizophrenia receiving treatment in Assertive Outreach Teams in the northern part of Denmark. Methods: GSD is a shared decision-making and mutual problem-solving method using reflection sheets, which was developed in diabetes care and adjusted for this study and utilized by patients with schizophrenia. Descriptive data on strategies to overcome recruitment challenges were derived from notes and observations made during the randomized controlled trial testing of GSD in six outpatient teams. Results: Three types of recruitment challenges not related to patients were identified and met during the trial: 1) organizational challenges, 2) challenges with finding eligible participants and 3) challenges with having professionals invite patients to participate. These challenges were overcome through: 1) extension of time, 2) expansion of the clinical recruitment area and 3) encouragement of professionals to invite patients to the study. Through overcoming these challenges, we identified a remarkably high patient-readiness to take part (101 of 120 asked accepted) and a low dropout rate (8%). Conclusion: Distinction between recruitment challenges was important in discovering the readiness among patients with schizophrenia to take part in and complete a trial with the GSD-intervention.}},
  author       = {{Jorgensen, Rikke and Munk-Jorgensen, Povl and Lysaker, Paul H. and Buck, Kelly D. and Hansson, Lars and Zoffmann, Vibeke}},
  issn         = {{1471-244X}},
  keywords     = {{Schizophrenia; Outpatients; Randomized controlled trial; Organization; Recruitment challenges; Strategies; Readiness}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{BioMed Central (BMC)}},
  series       = {{BMC Psychiatry}},
  title        = {{Overcoming recruitment barriers revealed high readiness to participate and low dropout rate among people with schizophrenia in a randomized controlled trial testing the effect of a Guided Self-Determination intervention}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/3930821/4882669}},
  doi          = {{10.1186/1471-244X-14-28}},
  volume       = {{14}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}