Challenges in recruitment of research participants

TLDR

Recruiting psychiatric research participants faces many pitfalls in candidate identification and enlistment. Recruitment challenges arise from study design, participant demographics and preferences, investigator traits, and clinician collaboration, and are mitigated through financial incentives, assertive tracking, communication strategies, ethical data collection, and control participant protocols. Effective recruitment requires early design consideration, understanding participant perspectives, close collaboration, strong investigator interpersonal and organizational skills, and timely feedback to all stakeholders.

Abstract

There are many potential pitfalls in the identification and enlistment of suitable candidates for psychiatric research. The challenges of recruitment are highlighted, detailing impact of study design, characteristics of participants, including demographics and personal preferences, investigator characteristics and collaboration with clinicians. Techniques used in recruitment are discussed, including financial incentives, assertive tracking and communication methods. Ethical issues, methods of data collection, and control participants are also considered. Key issues are: early consideration of the impact of study design on the recruitment process; the participant's perspective; close collaboration with colleagues; the investigator's good interpersonal, communication and organisational skills; and feedback to collaborators, associated clinicians and participants.