Evidence Summary
What is it?
A photocopy of a newspaper article with a description of the study is added to a letter of reminder.
Does it work?
Inclusion of a newspaper article about the trial may increase retention.
How big is the effect?
An increase of 8% (95% confidence interval = 1% to 15%).
How certain are we?
GRADE Low certainty.
Recommendation
We recommend that trialists consider adding a newspaper article about the trial to reminder letters.
How can I use this straight away?
See Resource bundle below for support materials.
Practical Impact
Imagine initial retention is 65% of those approached. You have a trial with 100 participants that needs responses from 80 to meet its statistical power calculations. Retention of 65% means that you will be 15 responses short (see chart below).
Now imagine adding a newspaper article to a reminder letter. The chart below shows the impact of an absolute increase of 8% (95% CI = 1% to 15%). Retention is now 73%, which means our best estimate is that you would now only be 7 responses short.
Cumulative Meta-Analysis*
*Random effects model done using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis v4 (www.meta-analysis.com).
Differences >0% favour the intervention. The GRADE assessment is low because of the imprecision of a single study.
Resource Bundle
How to Cite
Citation: Ostrovska B. Evidence pack– Retention: Newspaper article (RET12), 2023, https://www.trialforge.org/retention-sector/newspaper-article-id-ret12/.
More Information
- This summary is from the Cochrane review of strategies to improve retention in randomised trials (https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.MR000032.pub3/full).
- The ‘Does it work?’ statement is structured according to effect size and GRADE certainty as per GRADE Guidelines 26 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2019.10.014). The statement is for moderate effect size and Low GRADE certainty.
- The recommendation statement is the consensus view of the authors of this summary based on the GRADE certainty and features of the trials contributing to the evidence.
- If you have any questions contact info@trialforge.org.
