ArticleExploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy2023
Effectiveness and cost analysis of methods used to recruit older adult sedative users to a deprescribing randomized controlled trial during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 2 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effective and cost-effective strategies for recruiting rural adults into a civic engagement and health behavior change research study.BMC public health · 2026Trial
- Success and cost-effectiveness of strategies to recruit older adults to a behavioral intervention research study.Contemporary clinical trials · 2025Trial
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Recruitment to clinical trials is a challenge for researchers that became more pronounced because of COVID-19 public health protective measures, especially with respect to studies enrolling older adults. We completed an effectiveness and cost analysis of the recruitment methods used in The Your Answers When Needing Sleep in New Brunswick (YAWNS NB) study, a randomized controlled trial of a deprescribing intervention that recruited older adults with chronic use of sedatives during the pandemic. Methods: Study recruitment began during the COVID-19 pandemic. Strategies included random digit dialing (RDD), a targeted mail campaign and advertising through newspapers, online platforms (Google and Facebook), and television. Other awareness raising and recruitment strategies involved seniors' organizations, pharmacies, television news stories, and referrals. Recruitment effectiveness and cost analysis involved enrollment rate (ER), cost per randomized participant (CPRP), fractional cost (FC), fractional enrollment (FE), fractional enrollment-cost ratio (FEC), and efficacy index (EI) calculations. Results: There were 1295 interested older adults with 594 randomized into the study for an enrollment rate of 46%. The efficacy index (EI) was highest for Facebook ads (EI = 0.683) followed by television (EI = 0.426), and newsprint ads (EI = 0.298). The cost of RDD was highest per randomized participant at $1117.90 and produced the lowest EI (0.013). Conclusion: Facebook ads had the best efficacy index for recruiting older adults to the YAWNS NB study during the COVID-19 pandemic and television ads produced the most enrollments. RDD was expensive and yielded few recruits. Recruitment costs can be significant for recruiting community-dwelling older adults. This experience can inform recruitment strategy and budget development for future community studies enrolling older adults, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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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.