Overcoming Pandemic-Related Challenges in Recruitment and Screening: Strategies and Representation of Older Women With Cardiovascular Disease for a Multidomain Lifestyle Trial to Prevent Cognitive Decline.
Shannon Halloway, Annabelle Santos Volgman, Michael E Schoeny and 8 others
PMID 37167428WHAT IT FOUND
Remote recruitment through cardiology clinicians and mailed letters met a cardiovascular trial's enrollment goals, but randomized women were younger than the eligible clinic population, averaging 72.4 years, and only 1.6% Hispanic/Latinx and 0.8% Asian.
Key findings
01Recruitment stayed on schedule despite pandemic limits, adding 20 to 22 participants every 6 to 7 weeks.
02Randomized women averaged 72.4 years old, compared with 75.9 and 75.3 years in the other recruitment groups.
03Randomized patients included 1.6% Hispanic/Latinx and 0.8% Asian women, lower than the 10.8% and 13.1% Hispanic/Latinx and 3.6% and 2.7% Asian proportions in other groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
This paper analyzes recruitment records, not the trial's cognitive or health outcomes, so it cannot show that the lifestyle interventions worked. The sample is limited to older women with cardiovascular disease in the Chicago metropolitan area, so the recruitment strategies may not transfer to other populations. The researchers did not systematically record how patients were recruited, so some patients may have had multiple recruitment methods at once. They could not identify which not-recruited patients saw flyers or declined clinician introductions, and they did not know whether mailed letters were received or opened. The randomized sample was younger and included fewer Hispanic/Latinx and Asian women than the eligible clinic population, limiting representation.
Declared interests
No conflicts declaration is included in the supplied text. The publication types list N.I.H. extramural research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that physical activity or cognitive training prevented cognitive decline. The paper reports recruitment and representation only.