Recruiting phobic research subjects: effectiveness and cost.
Efficiently enrolling subjects is one of the most important and difficult aspects of a clinical trial. This prospective study evaluated strategies used in the recruitment of 144 dental injection phobics for a clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of combining alprazolam with exposure therapy. Three types of recruitment strategies were evaluated: paid advertising, free publicity, and professional referral. Sixty-three percent of subjects were enrolled using paid advertising (the majority of them from bus advertisements [27.0%], posters on the University of Washington campus [20.1%], and newspaper advertisements [13.2%]). Free publicity (eg, television coverage, word of mouth) yielded 18.8% of enrolled subjects and professionaL referrals 14.6% of subjects. The average cost (1996 dollars) of enrolling 1 subject was $79. Bus and poster advertising attracted more initial contacts and yielded the greatest enrollment.
Kaakko
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Department of Dental Public Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195-7475, USA. kaakko@u.washington.edu
Murtomaa
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Milgrom
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Getz
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Ramsay
D S
DS
Coldwell
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SE
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000329:Advertising; D000368:Aged; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007267:Injections / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018579:Patient Selection; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013690:Television