Virtual Recruitment and Retention in a Multisite Clinical trial: Descriptive analysis of strategies used to engage Women Veterans with urinary incontinence
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Background Urinary incontinence (UI) is a common condition among women has a significant impact on quality of life. In addition to typical risk factors for UI (e.g. pelvic floor trauma), women Veterans have additional risk factors associated with military service such as repeated heavy lifting and restricted bathroom access. Accessing care for UI can be hindered by lack of knowledge about treatment options, embarrassment, and inconvenience. Remote delivery of UI self-management education can overcome some of these barriers to care. Establishing evidence for remote delivery of UI treatment through clinical trials will be critical to informing patient-centered care, but it is unknown how to efficiently and effectively recruit women Veterans into such studies. In this paper we describe recruitment and retention strategies employed during a pragmatic clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of two virtual care delivery modalities of behavioral treatment for urinary incontinence. Methods We reviewed and analyzed descriptive recruitment data from a three-site sequential, multiple assignment randomized clinical trial conducted within the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System between April 2020 and September 2023. We explored how the study design, procedures, and modifications of study processes impacted recruitment and retention of participants. Results We met the overall recruitment and retention goal of randomizing 286 women for this study within the planned timeframe. The majority of study participants were identified through administrative medical records. Regular reminders, study staff’s flexibility with scheduling, and the use of technology such as Docusign and remote study interventions contributed strong recruitment and retention results. Conclusions Using recruitment strategies and study design choices intended to address barriers experienced by the target study population can result in reaching recruitment and retention targets more efficiently. Remote strategies for study recruitment and retention show a lot of promise for recruiting and retaining women in trials, but they do require additional study staff time, which should be taken into consideration during study planning. Trial Registration : Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT04237753
Source: Research Square
Language: English
Topic: Ethics in Clinical Research
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7204770453