Development of an online resource for recruitment research in clinical trials to organise and map current literature.

Background: Recruiting the target number of participants within the pre-specified time frame agreed with funders remains a common challenge in the completion of a successful clinical trial and addressing this is an important methodological priority. While there is growing research around recruitment, navigating this literature to support an evidence-based approach remains difficult. The Online resource for Recruitment Research in Clinical triAls project aims to create an online searchable database of recruitment research to improve access to existing evidence and to identify gaps for future research.

JACK trial protocol: a phase III multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial of a school-based relationship and sexuality education intervention focusing on young male perspectives.

Introduction: Teenage pregnancy remains a worldwide health concern which is an outcome of, and contributor to, health inequalities. The need for gender-aware interventions with a focus on males in addressing teenage pregnancy has been highlighted as a global health need by WHO and identified in systematic reviews of (relationship and sexuality education (RSE)). This study aims to test the effectiveness of an interactive film-based RSE intervention, which draws explicit attention to the role of males in preventing an unintended pregnancy by reducing unprotected heterosexual teenage sex among males and females under age 16 years.

Inconsistencies in the drawing and interpretation of smiley faces: an observational study.

Objectives: Pre-prepared smiley face symbols are used widely to gather information on, for example, satisfaction with services or health and well-being. We investigated how women and men of different ages respond when asked to draw a smiley face for themselves. Our objectives were to investigate how they differ by generating a unique set of data to explore this simple human behaviour and to illustrate the importance of considering gender and age mix in any study.

Emotional development among early school-age children: gender differences in the role of problem behaviours.

There has been an increasing focus on social and emotional development in educational programmes in early childhood as both variables are believed to influence behavioural outcomes in the classroom. However, relationships between social and emotional development and behaviour in early childhood have rarely been explored. This article sets out to investigate the conceptualisation of these variables and their interrelationships.

Recruiting faith- and non-faith-based schools, adolescents and parents to a cluster randomised sexual-health trial: experiences, challenges and lessons from the mixed-methods Jack Feasibility Trial.

Background: The move toward evidence-based education has led to increasing numbers of randomised trials in schools. However, the literature on recruitment to non-clinical trials is relatively underdeveloped, when compared to that of clinical trials. Recruitment to school-based randomised trials is, however, challenging, even more so when the focus of the study is a sensitive issue such as sexual health.

How much do you need: a randomised experiment of whether readers can understand the key messages from summaries of Cochrane Reviews without reading the full review.

Objective: We explored whether readers can understand key messages without having to read the full review, and if there were differences in understanding between various types of summary.

Design: A randomised experiment of review summaries which compared understanding of a key outcome.

Participants: Members of university staff (n = 36).

Feasibility trial of a film-based educational intervention for increasing boys' and girls' intentions to avoid teenage pregnancy: Study protocol.

The World Health Organisation, amongst others, recognises that adolescent men have a vital yet neglected role in reducing teenage pregnancies and that there is a pressing need for educational interventions designed especially for them. This study seeks to fill this gap by determining the feasibility of conducting an effectiveness trial of the intervention in post-primary schools. This 4-week intervention aims to increase teenagers' intentions to avoid unintended pregnancy and addresses gender inequalities in sex education by explicitly focusing on young men.

SWAT 1: what effects do site visits by the principal investigator have on recruitment in a multicentre randomized trial?

The SWAT (Study Within A Trial) programme has been established to develop a series of studies that would embed research within research, so as to resolve uncertainties about the effects of different ways of designing, conducting, analyzing and interpreting evaluations of health and social care. It was described in an Education piece in the Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine in 2012. We have now prepared the first example of the design summary for a SWAT, using the template that will be used for other SWAT.

Home-based child development interventions for preschool children from socially disadvantaged families.

Background: Social disadvantage can have a significant impact on early child development, health and wellbeing. What happens during this critical period is important for all aspects of development. Caregiving competence and the quality of the environment play an important role in supporting development in young children and parents have an important role to play in optimising child development and mitigating the negative effects of social disadvantage.

Exploring the impact of depressive symptoms and medication beliefs on medication adherence in hypertension--a primary care study.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the levels of adherence in a sample of hypertensive patients being cared for in primary care in Northern Ireland and to explore the impact of depressive symptoms and medication beliefs on medication adherence.

Methods: The study was conducted in 97 community pharmacies across Northern Ireland. A questionnaire containing measures of medication adherence, depressive symptoms and beliefs about medicines was completed by 327 patients receiving antihypertensive medications.