Browsing by Author "Kakumanu, Sravya"

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    Cost analysis and efficacy of recruitment strategies used in a large pragmatic community-based clinical trial targeting low-income seniors: a comparative descriptive analysis
    (2019-10-07) Kakumanu, Sravya; Manns, Braden J; Tran, Sophia; Saunders-Smith, Terry; Hemmelgarn, Brenda R; Tonelli, Marcello; Tsuyuki, Ross; Ivers, Noah; Southern, Danielle; Bakal, Jeff; Campbell, David J T
    Abstract Objective One of the most challenging parts of running clinical trials is recruiting enough participants. Our objective was to determine which recruitment strategies were effective in reaching specific subgroups. Study design and setting We assessed the efficacy and costs of the recruitment strategies used in the Assessing Outcomes of Enhanced Chronic Disease Care Through Patient Education and a Value-based Formulary Study (ACCESS) in Alberta, Canada. Results Twenty percent of the study budget ($354,330 CAD) was spent on recruiting 4013 participants, giving an average cost per enrolled of $88 CAD. Pharmacies recruited the most participants (n = 1217), at a cost of $128/enrolled. ”Paid media” had the highest cost ($806/enrolled), whereas ”word of mouth” and ”unpaid media” had the lowest (~$3/enrolled). Participants enrolled from ”seniors outreach” had the lowest baseline quality of life and income, while participants from ”word of mouth” had the lowest educational attainment. Conclusion The ”health care providers” strategies were especially successful — at a moderate cost per enrolled. The "media" strategies were less effective, short lasting, and more costly. No strategy was singularly effective in recruiting our targeted groups, emphasizing the importance of utilizing a variety of strategies to reach recruitment goals. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02579655 . Registered on 19 October 2015.
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    Recruiting for Pragmatic Clinical Trials: Evaluation of Recruitment Methods used in the ACCESS Trial
    (University of Calgary, 2018-09-23) Kakumanu, Sravya
    Recruitment continues to be quite challenging for clinical researchers. The prevalence of the issue is commonly cited in literature; however, little research has been done on identifying the most cost-effective, efficient, and successful ways to recruit people (especially of hard to reach demographics) into studies. Using data from the Assessing outcomes of enhanced Chronic disease Care through patient Education and a value-baSed formulary Study (ACCESS Study), we identified 14 major recruitment strategies used in this study. Out of which we found Pharmacies was the most expensive ($151,100 CAD) and recruited the most participants (n=1217), while Unpaid Media and Word of Mouth had the lowest costs per enrolled participants ($4/pt and $5/pt respectively). Additionally, we found that the mail strategies were very inefficient at getting people interested/enrolled in the study (0.8% of all people contacted by mail ended up enrolling); however, they were successful at recruiting certain hard-to-reach demographics (older seniors). Overall, we saw that no single strategy was able to target all the hard-to-reach demographics, as certain strategies were better for certain populations than others- possibly emphasizing the importance of variety during recruitment. This ambiguity however stresses the importance of continuing this research and understanding why certain strategies work better than others.