Objectives: Researchers face numerous challenges when recruiting participants for health and social care research. This study reports on the challenges faced recruiting older adults for , a co-designed holistic intervention to manage and reduce frailty, and highlights lessons learnt amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design: A qualitative study design was used. Referrer interviews were conducted to explore the recruitment challenges faced by the frontline workers. An audit of the research participant (aged ≥65) database was also undertaken to evaluate the reasons for refusal to participate and withdrawal from the study.
Setting: Hospital emergency departments (EDs) and a home care provider in Melbourne, Australia.
Participants: Frontline workers and older adults.
Results: From May 2022 to June 2023, 71 referrals were received. Of those referrals, only 13 (18.3%) agreed to participate. Three participants withdrew immediately after baseline data collection, and the remaining 10 continued to participate in the programme. Reasons for older adult non-participation were (1) health issues (25.3%), (2) ineligibility (18.3%), (3) lack of interest (15.5%), (4) perceptions of being 'too old' (11.2%) and (5) perceptions of being too busy (5.6%). Of those participating, five were female and five were male. Eleven referrer interviews were conducted to explore challenges with recruitment, and three themes were generated after thematic analysis: (1) challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, (2) characteristics of the programme and (3) health of older adults.
Conclusion: Despite using multiple strategies, recruitment was much lower than anticipated. The ED staff were at capacity associated with pandemic-related activities. While EDs are important sources of participants for research, they were not suitable recruitment sites at the time of this study, due to COVID-19-related challenges. Programme screening characteristics and researchers' inability to develop rapport with potential participants also contributed to low recruitment numbers.
Trial Registration Number: ACTRN12620000533998; Pre-results.
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| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11328630 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-082618 | DOI Listing |
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