Do personalised e-mail invitations increase the response rates of breast cancer survivors invited to participate in a web-based behaviour change intervention? A quasi-randomised 2-arm controlled trial.
BACKGROUND
Previous research has shown that the personalisation of study invitations improves response rates in survey-based research. To examine if this finding extends to experimental studies, we examined the impact of personalised study invitation e-mails on the response rates of potentially eligible breast cancer survivors for participation in a 6 month randomised controlled trial testing the efficacy of a physical activity intervention.


METHODS
Potential participants (n = 344) were sent either a personalised email or a generic email.


RESULTS
Those sent the personalised email were 1.5 times (95 % CI = 1.18-1.93) more likely to respond than those sent the generic email.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that personalisation may be a useful and potentially powerful tool that can be utilised when recruiting participants into experimental studies in order to boost response rates.
Freemasons Foundation Centre of Men's Health, School of Medicine, University of Adelaide, Level 7, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, North Terrace, Adelaide, 5000, Australia. Camille.short@adelaide.edu.au.
Camille E
CE
Short
Physical Activity Research Group, School of Human Health and Social Sciences, Central Queensland University, Building 18, Bruce Highway, Rockhampton, QLD, 4702, Australia.
Amanda L
AL
Rebar
Physical Activity Research Group, School of Human Health and Social Sciences, Central Queensland University, Building 18, Bruce Highway, Rockhampton, QLD, 4702, Australia.
Corneel
C
Vandelanotte
D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D034742:Electronic Mail; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination / Q000379:methods; D020407:Internet; D010358:Patient Participation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*