Maintenance Notice

Due to necessary scheduled maintenance, the JMIR Publications website will be unavailable from Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM EST. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Who will be affected?

Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research

Date Submitted: Aug 15, 2023
Open Peer Review Period: Aug 15, 2023 - Oct 10, 2023
Date Accepted: Aug 30, 2024
(closed for review but you can still tweet)

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Challenges and Approaches to Recruitment for and Retention in a Dyad-Focused eHealth Intervention During COVID-19: Randomized Controlled Trial

Ma C, Adler RH, Neidre DB, Chen RC, Northouse LL, Rini C, Tan X, Song L

Challenges and Approaches to Recruitment for and Retention in a Dyad-Focused eHealth Intervention During COVID-19: Randomized Controlled Trial

J Med Internet Res 2024;26:e51877

DOI: 10.2196/51877

PMID: 39625741

PMCID: 11653043

The Challenges and Strategies of Accrual and Retention During COVID-19 in a Randomized Controlled Trial Testing A Dyad-focused eHealth Intervention

  • Chunxuan Ma; 
  • Rachel H. Adler; 
  • Daria B. Neidre; 
  • Ronald C. Chen; 
  • Laurel L. Northouse; 
  • Christine Rini; 
  • Xianming Tan; 
  • Lixin Song

ABSTRACT

Background:

Family-based randomized controlled trials (RCT) encounter recruitment and retention challenges. Cancer-focused RCTs typically recruit convenience samples from local cancer centers and hospitals.

Objective:

Our study examined the recruitment and retention of a population-based patient-partner dyad cohort in an RCT testing a dyadic eHealth intervention to improve quality of life in prostate cancer (PCa) patients and their partners.

Methods:

In this two-arm, parallel-group RCT, men who recently completed treatment for localized PCa statewide were recruited via the North Carolina Central Cancer Registry Rapid Case Ascertainment (RCA) between April 2018 and April 2021, coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic. Patient-partner dyads underwent baseline assessments and were randomly assigned to the intervention or control groups. Follow-up surveys were conducted at 4-, 8-, and 12 months post-baseline. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were employed to achieve the study’s aims.

Results:

Of the 3,078 patients referred from RCA, 2,899 were screened; 357 partners were approached after obtaining eligible patients’ permission; 280 dyads completed baseline assessments and randomized (dyad enrollment rate: 85.11%); and 221 dyads completed the 12-month follow-up (retention rate: 78.93%). Factors associated with retention included race and age.

Conclusions:

Despite the negative impact of the pandemic, we successfully recruited enough patient-partner dyads to test our RCT hypotheses. Our recruitment and retention rates were equivalent to or higher than those in most dyadic intervention studies. A well-functioning research team and specific strategies (e.g., eHealth intervention, Internet phone, and online surveys) facilitated the recruitment and retention of PCa patients and their partners during the unprecedented pandemic. Clinical Trial: Clinicaltrial.gov ID: NCT03489057.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Ma C, Adler RH, Neidre DB, Chen RC, Northouse LL, Rini C, Tan X, Song L

Challenges and Approaches to Recruitment for and Retention in a Dyad-Focused eHealth Intervention During COVID-19: Randomized Controlled Trial

J Med Internet Res 2024;26:e51877

DOI: 10.2196/51877

PMID: 39625741

PMCID: 11653043

Download PDF


Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.

© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.