Mentioning scarcity of trial places in text messages.
Mentioning scarcity of trial places in text messages probably increases recruitment slightly.
An increase of 3% (95% confidence interval = 1% to 6%).
GRADE Moderate certainty.
We suggest that trialists consider using text messaging #1: mentioning scarcity, ideally as part of a SWAT evaluation
See Resource bundle below for details of how to use text messaging #1: mentioning scarcity or build a SWAT evaluation of them into your trial.
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 of them (see chart).
Now imagine mentioning scarcity in a text message. The chart below shows the impact of an absolute increase of 3% (95% CI = 1% to 6%). Recruitment is now 3%, which means our best estimate is that 91 people would now need to be approached to recruit 30 of them.
Trial Forge will make trials more efficient by looking for marginal gains across all trial processes, from research question to implementation into routine care. It will encourage everyone connected with trials to be more sceptical of what we do by asking for the evidence behind all of our trial decisions.