Clinical trials are important, but recruiting and retaining participants is challenging. Fewer than half of trials meet their recruitment goals, leading to wasted time, money, and effort for research teams and participants. Additionally, poor retention, when participants drop out before the study ends, can limit the strength of the trial’s results. Recruitment and retention problems therefore delay the identification and implementation of effective new treatments.
We have undertaken systematic reviews that found that there is little high-quality evidence to guide recruitment and retention decisions. One way of filling these gaps is to use a Study Within A Trial (SWAT). A SWAT is an evaluation done within a ‘host’ trial and can, for example, test whether a new retention strategy is better than an existing strategy. We have created lists of priority recruitment and retention SWATs based on how often the strategy is used, existing evidence and recruitment and retention research priorities.
We now aim to create clear plans, called protocols, for these priority SWATs. These protocols can then be used by other researchers and promoted to researchers by funders. Each protocol will give clear guidance on the recruitment or retention strategy to be tested and the test outcomes to be measured and will be supported by a resource pack providing help on how to do the SWAT. Due to the nature of SWATs, these studies need to be copied and conducted several times and our materials will support this.
Our work will make speed up the evidence about what works, and what doesn't work, for recruiting and retaining participants, leading to faster discoveries of better treatments.
Contacts
- Hanne Bruhn; hanne.bruhn@abdn.ac.uk
- Shaun Treweek; streweek@mac.com