title: Recruiting general practitioners as participants for qualitative and experimental primary care studies in Australia.
abstract: Recruiting general practitioners (GPs) for participation in primary care research is vitally important, but it can be very difficult for researchers to engage time-poor GPs. This paper describes six different strategies used by a research team recruiting Australian GPs for three qualitative interview studies and one experimental study, and reports the response rates and costs incurred. Strategies included: (1) mailed invitations via Divisions of General Practice; (2) electronic newsletters; (3) combining mailed invitations and newsletter; (4) in-person recruitment at GP conferences; (5) conference satchel inserts; and (6) combining in-person recruitment and satchel inserts. Response rates ranged from 0 (newsletter) to 30% (in-person recruitment). Recruitment costs perparticipant ranged from A$83 (in-person recruitment) to A$232 (satchel inserts). Mailed invitations can be viable for qualitative studies, especially when free/low-cost mailing lists are used, if the response rate is less important. In-person recruitment at GP conferences can be effective for short quantitative studies, where a higher response rate is important. Newsletters and conference satchel inserts were expensive and ineffective.
authors: Shannon
authors: S
authors: McKinn
authors: Carissa
authors: C
authors: Bonner
authors: Jesse
authors: J
authors: Jansen
authors: Kirsten
authors: K
authors: McCaffery
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D058005:General Practitioners; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018579:Patient Selection; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011320:Primary Health Care