Recruitment of patients for a clinical trial: factors on the physician side and reasons on the patient side.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the factors related to actual patient recruiters among the physicians who initially agreed to collaborate in a randomized control trial.


METHODS
We conducted a questionnaire survey of 679 physicians (512 actual recruiter and 167 non-recruiters) who had initially agreed to recruit patients for a clinical trial to determine factors to predict who would actually do so.


RESULTS
Response rates among recruiters and non-recruiters were 87.5% and 73.1%, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression model showed that the proportions of regular users of computer [odds ratio (OR) =2.1, 95% confidence intervals (CI)=1.3-3.3] (p=0.002) and current participants in other clinical trials (OR=2.2, CI=1.5-3.4) (p=0.001) were significantly higher among recruiters than non-recruiters. Patients' reasons for non-participation as perceived by the physicians did not differ between recruiters and non-recruiters.


CONCLUSIONS
Results of this study might be useful in predicting actual recruiters at the outset of clinical trials.
Fukui
Tsuguya
T
Clinical Practice Evaluation and Research Center, St. Luke's Life Science Institute, St. Luke's International Hospital, Tokyo.
Rahman
Mahbubur
M
Shimbo
Takuro
T
Morita
Satoshi
S
Sakamoto
Junichi
J
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018579:Patient Selection; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000523:psychology*; D035842:Research Subjects / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016312:Treatment Refusal