Trial reportBMC research notes2014
What can we learn from a failed trial: insight into non-participation in a chat-based intervention trial for adolescents with psychosocial problems.
Trial report in BMC research notes, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Application of Synchronous Text-Based Dialogue Systems in Mental Health Interventions: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2017Pooled it
- Chatbot Intervention and Cancer Risk Knowledge in Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer Predisposition: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2026Trial
- What patients want from healthcare chatbots: insights from a mixed-methods study.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2025Article
- Alter egos alter engagement: perspective-taking can improve disclosure quantity and depth to AI chatbots in promoting mental wellbeing.Frontiers in digital health · 2025Article
- Participant Recruitment Issues in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinical Trials with a Focus on Prevention Programs: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Literature.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- Predicting Mental Health Status in Remote and Rural Farming Communities: Computational Analysis of Text-Based Counseling.JMIR formative research · 2022Article
- Suitability of Text-Based Communications for the Delivery of Psychological Therapeutic Services to Rural and Remote Communities: Scoping Review.JMIR mental health · 2021Article
- Conversational Agents in Health Care: Scoping Review and Conceptual Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Article
- Factors affecting adolescents' participation in randomized controlled trials evaluating the effectiveness of healthcare interventions: the case of the STEPSTONES project.BMC medical research methodology · 2020Article
- Barriers and facilitators to screening and treating malnutrition in older adults living in the community: a mixed-methods synthesis.BMC family practice · 2019Review
- Chat- and internet-based cognitive-behavioural therapy in treatment of adolescent depression: randomised controlled trial.BJPsych open · 2018Article
- Using the Person-Based Approach to optimise a digital intervention for the management of hypertension.PloS one · 2018Article
- Targeting Next Generations to Change the Common Practice of Underpowered Research.Frontiers in psychology · 2017Article
- Will they participate? Predicting patients' response to clinical trial invitations in a pediatric emergency department.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPsychosocial problems are highly prevalent among Dutch adolescents. We have conducted a trial to test whether offering chat-based consultations could be of added value within the context of Dutch Youth Health Care. This trial was ended prematurely because of recruitment issues. The aim of this study is to learn from this failed trial and to provide more insight into non-participation. Sources of data were non-participation forms, oral clarification, patient records, telephone interviews with adolescents that declined to participate, and a questionnaire-based process evaluation among nurses.
resultsNon-participation appears to be a multi-factorial problem. Of those 290 adolescents eligible to participate, the majority (n = 165, 57%) declined to do so. Two-third of those (n = 109) also refused usual care, which might be indicative of not wanting help and/or experiencing problems and the validity of the assessment instrument. The other one-third (n = 56) did enrol in usual care and indicated other reasons for non-participation, such as a preference for face-to-face consultations, the extensive information that was provided, and not liking the idea of being randomized.
conclusionsThis study shows that even if a trial fails, we can learn about the challenges of recruiting adolescents in intervention trials.
trial registrationNL37668.068.11/METC11-3-077.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.