Research Attitudes Questionnaire scores and retention in a recruitment registry

Recruitment registries are maximally effective when registrants are retained to the point of referral. The Research Attitudes Questionnaire (RAQ) has previously been shown to predict research participation behaviors, including Alzheimer's disease clinical trial completion.

To test the hypothesis that RAQ score is associated with retention behaviors in a local recruitment registry.

Using data from the UC Irvine Consent-to-Contact Registry, a recruitment registry that enrolls adults 18 years and older, we used logistic regression to quantify the association of RAQ score and the odds of first-year non-renewal. Covariates included demographic variables, comorbidities, and recruitment source. In longitudinal analyses, we used discrete proportional hazards and Cox proportional hazards models to quantify the relationship between RAQ score and time to non-renewal and time to active withdrawal, respectively.

Among n = 4663 participants, we estimated that a 5-point higher baseline RAQ score was associated with a 15% lower odds of first-year non-renewal, after adjustment for potential confounding factors (OR: 0.85, 95% CI: (0.79, 0.92), p < 0.001). Older age and higher education were also associated with lower odds of non-renewal while Asian race, Hispanic ethnicity, and certain recruitment sources (e.g., doctor or friend referral) were associated with higher odds of non-renewal. Higher baseline RAQ and higher annually updated RAQ were both significantly associated with lower odds of non-renewal longitudinally. Age, education, and some recruitment sources, but not RAQ, were associated with active withdrawal.

Opportunities exist to identify predictors of registry retention behaviors and possible targets for intervention to improve related outcomes.