Recruitment for a guided self-help binge eating trial: potential lessons for implementing programs in everyday...

Area of Science:

• Clinical Psychology
• Public Health Research
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Recruitment for eating disorder clinical trials presents unique challenges within managed care settings.
• Understanding the impact of different recruitment strategies is crucial for trial feasibility and generalizability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of various recruitment strategies on participant characteristics for eating disorder randomized clinical trials (RCTs).
• To compare self-referred participants with those recruited via study outreach within a health plan setting.

Main Methods:

• Women aged 25-50 within a Pacific Northwest HMO were invited to screen for binge-eating disorder for two treatment trials.
• Recruitment utilized online, mail, and self-referral methods, with comparisons made between comprehensive and abbreviated assessments.
• Enrollee characteristics were analyzed based on recruitment strategy (self-referred vs. study-outreach).

Main Results:

• Few differences were observed between recruitment modalities (internet vs. mail) and assessment types (comprehensive vs. abbreviated).
• Self-referred participants were more likely to meet binge-eating criteria and had higher BMIs compared to mail-recruited participants.
• Overall, recruited groups exhibited more similarities than anticipated, with less than 1% of those contacted via outreach enrolling.

Conclusions:

• Aggressive outreach and screening are likely not feasible for widespread implementation in routine healthcare settings.
• Realistic screening procedures recruit individuals with demographic and clinical characteristics similar to those identified through more intensive methods.