Recruiting Cancer Survivors to a Mobile Mindfulness Intervention in the United States: Exploring Online and Face-to-Face Recruitment Strategies.

Celine Isabelle Arnobit,Ian Pagano,Christa Braun-Inglis,Erin O’Carroll Bantum,Mai Uchiyama,Jami Fukui,Kiana Loo

doi:10.3390/ijerph181910136

Abstract

Cancer survivorship research faces several recruitment challenges, such as accrual of a representative sample, as well as participant retention. Our study explores patterns in recruited demographics, patient-reported outcomes (PROs), and retention rates for a randomized controlled trial (RCT) utilizing a mobile mindfulness intervention for the well-being of cancer survivors. In total, 123 participants were recruited using traditional and online strategies. Using the chi-square test of independence, recruitment type was compared with demographic and clinical variables, PROs, and retention at Time 2 and Time 3. Online recruitment resulted in almost double the yield compared to traditional recruitment. Online-recruited participants were more often younger, from the continental U.S., Caucasian, diagnosed and treated less recently, at a later stage of diagnosis, diagnosed with blood cancer, without high blood pressure, and with less reported pain. The recruitment method was not significantly associated with retention. Online recruitment may capture a larger, broader survivor sample, but, similar to traditional recruitment, may also lead to selection biases depending on where efforts are focused. Future research should assess the reasons underlying the higher yield and retention rates of online recruitment and should evaluate how to apply a mix of traditional and online recruitment strategies to efficiently accrue samples that are representative of the survivor population.

Highlights

IntroductionThe population of cancer survivors is rapidly increasing
The objective of the current analysis is to evaluate the efficacy of the online recruitment methods used for the study, which is measured by recruitment numbers and retention rates, as well as to examine any patterns in the recruited participant demographics
We suggest that future online health research, especially within psychosocial oncology, report successful recruitment tactics, demographics of recruited samples, and retention rates, which can serve as a proxy measure of recruitment success [8]

Summary

Introduction

The population of cancer survivors is rapidly increasing. 16.9 million Americans with a history of cancer as of January 1, 2019, and this number is expected to increase to 22.1 million by 2030 [1]. Research to promote quality of life and well-being in the growing cancer survivor population will only become more essential and relevant. Despite its importance as an increasingly relevant field of study, cancer survivorship research in general is difficult to recruit for [2,3,4], regardless of the intervention format. It is especially difficult to recruit a representative sample that reflects the clinical and demographic diversity of the survivor population. Many subgroups are historically underrepresented in psychosocial oncology, signaling selection bias, such as survivors from rural areas [3], adolescent and young adult (AYA) survivors [5,6], and racial and ethnic minority survivors [7]

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Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion