title: Recruitment of pregnant women to an exercise-intervention study.
abstract: We share here our experience of recruiting pregnant women into an exercise intervention study. Recruitment challenges were anticipated owing to the study design, which required four hospital visits for cardiovascular assessment, a long-term (nine-month) commitment, and adherence to a 20-week exercise programme. Fifty-three women were assigned to one of three groups (no-exercise, land exercise or water exercise) using a 2 × 2 × 2 flexible randomisation design. Seven hundred forty-four women were screened at an antenatal clinic, of whom 501 were eligible to participate in the study. One hundred forty-five women were subsequently approached: 46 (32%) of whom agreed to participate, 42 (29%) were interested but then declined and 57 (39%) declined outright. Our study design helped recruit pregnant women as it allowed them some choice of group membership. We also noted that the participant-researcher relationship is important in reducing attrition. Our experience provides indications of likely recruitment and attrition rates for future randomised controlled trials of this type.
authors.affiliation: a College of Engineering, Swansea University , UK.|b Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board , Swansea , UK.
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Carpenter
authors.affiliation: b Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board , Swansea , UK.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Emery
authors.affiliation: c College of Health and Human Sciences, Swansea University , UK.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rassi
authors.affiliation: a College of Engineering, Swansea University , UK.|d University Hospital of Wales , Cardiff , UK.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Uzun
authors.affiliation: a College of Engineering, Swansea University , UK.|b Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board , Swansea , UK.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Lewis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010352:Patient Dropouts; D018579:Patient Selection; D011247:Pregnancy; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Pregnancy; exercise; longitudinal; randomised controlled trial; recruitment; study design