Recruitment of patients for a clinical trial: factors on the physician side and reasons on the patient side.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the factors related to actual patient recruiters among the physicians who initially agreed to collaborate in a randomized control trial.

METHODS: We conducted a questionnaire survey of 679 physicians (512 actual recruiter and 167 non-recruiters) who had initially agreed to recruit patients for a clinical trial to determine factors to predict who would actually do so.

RESULTS: Response rates among recruiters and non-recruiters were 87.5% and 73.1%, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression model showed that the proportions of regular users of computer [odds ratio (OR) =2.1, 95% confidence intervals (CI)=1.3-3.3] (p=0.002) and current participants in other clinical trials (OR=2.2, CI=1.5-3.4) (p=0.001) were significantly higher among recruiters than non-recruiters. Patients' reasons for non-participation as perceived by the physicians did not differ between recruiters and non-recruiters.

CONCLUSION: Results of this study might be useful in predicting actual recruiters at the outset of clinical trials.