How Frequently and in What Format Are Research Trial Results Disseminated to Participants (ResponseQT)

NCT03021863 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: ThinkWell & BMJ 2
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 1,198
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Questionnaires are frequently used in online research, however recruiting, and completion rates of online participants from a variety of cultures and demographic backgrounds can be challenging. The challenge is greater in an online cohort because there is no way to observe the participant beyond what is contributed online. Poor recruiting and completion can result in underpowered research that may not be representative of the sample population. This can trigger an increase in costs as the recruitment period may have to be extended until sample size is reached. When recruiting and completion rates are inadequate studies may have to be terminated and the answer to the research question can remain unknown. To mitigate these challenges, reminder emails are sent to questionnaire respondents. There is uncertainty about how the tone of the email reminder affects the proportion of recruitment rates. A nested randomized trial will be used to test the intervention of tone delivery in survey email reminders to establish an evidence base. This study (ResponseQT) proposes to link with the anticipated 20,000 person international cohort study, (How Frequently and in What Format are Research Trial Results Disseminated to Participants: A Survey of Trialists (ResponseQT) to explore the evidence of effect for the research question, "Does the tone of a survey email reminder affect the proportion of survey participants recruited. The population will consist of researchers who have published a clinical trial indexed in Pub Med in 2014-15.The intervention is the tone of questionnaire email reminders and the outcomes will be the proportion of participants recruited after invitation (partial plus complete responses) following reminder 1 and 2.

Conditions

Motivation

Keywords

Dissemination; Tone; Survey reminders; Questionnaires

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Recruitment

  Proportion of sample recruited

  Duration of study up to 60 days

Study Arms (9)

Group A Reminder

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Tone of reminder email (duty 14 days followed by duty for non-responders 28 days)

Behavioral: Group A Reminder

Group B Reminder

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Tone of reminder email (encouragement 14 days followed by encouragement for non-responders 28 days)

Behavioral: Group B Reminder

Group C Reminder

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Tone of reminder email (encouragement 14 days followed by duty for non-responders 28 days)

Behavioral: Group C Reminder

Group D Reminder

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Tone of reminder email (duty 14 days followed by encouragement for non-responders 28 days)

Behavioral: Group D Reminder

Group E Reminder

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Tone of reminder email (generic reminders at 14 days followed by generic for non-responders 28 days)

Behavioral: Group E Reminder

Group F Reminder

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Tone of reminder email (generic 14 days followed by duty for non-responders 28 days)

Behavioral: Group F Reminder

Group G Reminder

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Tone of reminder email (generic 14 days followed by encouragement for non-responders 28 days)

Behavioral: Group G Reminder

Group H Reminder

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Tone of reminder email (duty 14 days followed by generic for non-responders 28 days)

Behavioral: Group H Reminder

Group I Reminder

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Tone of reminder email (encouragement 14 days followed by generic for non-responders 28 days)

Behavioral: Group I Reminder

Interventions

Group A Reminder BEHAVIORAL

Tone of reminder email (duty 14 days followed by duty 28 days for non-responders)

Group A Reminder

Group B Reminder BEHAVIORAL

Tone of reminder email (encouragement 14 days followed by encouragement 28 days for non-responders)

Group B Reminder

Group C Reminder BEHAVIORAL

Tone of reminder email (encouragement 14 days followed by duty for non-responders 28 days)

Group C Reminder

Group D Reminder BEHAVIORAL

Tone of reminder email (duty 14 days followed by encouragement for non-responders 28 days)

Group D Reminder

Group E Reminder BEHAVIORAL

Tone of reminder email (generic reminders 14 days followed by 28 days for non-responders)

Group E Reminder

Group F Reminder BEHAVIORAL

Tone of reminder email (generic 14 days followed by duty for non-responders 28 days)

Group F Reminder

Group G Reminder BEHAVIORAL

Tone of reminder email (generic 14 days followed by encouragement for non-responders 28 days)

Group G Reminder

Group H Reminder BEHAVIORAL

Tone of reminder email ( duty14 days followed by generic for non-responders 28 days)

Group H Reminder

Group I Reminder BEHAVIORAL

Tone of reminder email (encouragement 14 days followed by generic non-responders 28 days)

Group I Reminder

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• reports of clinical trials with human participants indexed in PubMed 2014-15

You may not qualify if:

• reports of laboratory or animal studies,
• reports of preclinical trials,
• reports of trials where there were no study participants

Sponsors & Collaborators

• ThinkWell: lead
• University of Oxford: collaborator
• The BMJ: collaborator
• Queen's University, Belfast: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

ThinkWell

Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX4 4DN, United Kingdom

Location

Related Publications (7)

• Wilson PM, Petticrew M, Calnan MW, Nazareth I. Disseminating research findings: what should researchers do? A systematic scoping review of conceptual frameworks. Implement Sci. 2010 Nov 22;5:91. doi: 10.1186/1748-5908-5-91.

  PMID: 21092164 BACKGROUND

• Tetroe JM, Graham ID, Foy R, Robinson N, Eccles MP, Wensing M, Durieux P, Legare F, Nielson CP, Adily A, Ward JE, Porter C, Shea B, Grimshaw JM. Health research funding agencies' support and promotion of knowledge translation: an international study. Milbank Q. 2008 Mar;86(1):125-55. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0009.2007.00515.x.

  PMID: 18307479 BACKGROUND

• Felix LM, Burchett HE, Edwards PJ. Factorial trial found mixed evidence of effects of pre-notification and pleading on response to Web-based survey. J Clin Epidemiol. 2011 May;64(5):531-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2010.06.001. Epub 2010 Sep 17.

  PMID: 20850270 BACKGROUND

• Fang J, Shao P, Lan G. Effects of innovativeness and trust on web survey participation. Comput Human Behav 2009;25:144-52. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2008.08.002

  BACKGROUND

• Fan W, Yan Z. Factors affecting response rates of the web survey: A systematic review. Comput Human Behav 2010;26:132-9. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2009.10.015

  BACKGROUND

• Cook DA, Wittich CM, Daniels WL, West CP, Harris AM, Beebe TJ. Incentive and Reminder Strategies to Improve Response Rate for Internet-Based Physician Surveys: A Randomized Experiment. J Med Internet Res. 2016 Sep 16;18(9):e244. doi: 10.2196/jmir.6318.

  PMID: 27637296 BACKGROUND

• Baruch Y, Holtom BC. Survey response rate levels and trends in organizational research. Hum Relations 2008;61:1139-60. doi:10.1177/0018726708094863

  BACKGROUND

Study Officials

• Amy I Price, PhD

  ThinkWell

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: TRIPLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, INVESTIGATOR, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: January 11, 2017
• First Posted: January 16, 2017
• Study Start: January 15, 2017
• Primary Completion: June 30, 2018
• Study Completion: September 30, 2019
• Last Updated: March 22, 2021

Record last verified: 2021-03

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share

Locations

GB (1)