Sending a pre-recruitment primer letter
Sending a pre-recruitment primer letter may have little or no effect on recruitment.
0%
The absolute increase is 0% (95% CI = -6% to 6%)1
LOW CERTAINTY in the evidence (but see 'What we don't know' below)
The practical impact of sending a pre-recruitment primer letter
Imagine a trial that needs to recruit 30 participants and initial recruitment is 30% of those approached. This means you'd need to approach 100 people to recruit 30 (see chart below).
Now imagine sending a pre-recruitment primer letter. The chart below shows the impact of an absolute increase of 0% (95% CI = -6% to 6%)1. Recruitment is still 30%, which means our best estimate is that 100 people would still need to be approached to recruit 30 of them.
Where has sending a pre-recruitment primer letter been tested?
Intervention:
Comparison:
Scale:
Study 1: Paul 2014
Participants?
Participants were 18 years or older with a primary colorectal cancer diagnosis and within 3 months of diagnosis and on registry.
Trial intervention?
Unclear but recruitment is to a colorectal cancer screening trial.
Study location?
Community, Australia.
What difference?
39.9% of participants randomised to receive a primer letter were recruited; 40.1% of participants randomised to not receive a primer letter were recruited
What we still don’t know about sending pre-recruitment primer letters
- The GRADE assessment is low for this intervention because the there is only a single evaluation with imprecision. More evaluations in any type of trial are needed.
- Please get in touch (email info@trialforge.org) if you would like to do an evaluation because we can help with text for ethics etc.
