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Successful (and Unsuccessful) Recruitment Approaches and Participant Loss in a Down Syndrome Survey
Mikayla Shaffer1, John Patrick T Co1, Karen Donelan1
1Mikayla Shaffer, Massachusetts General Hospital, John Patrick T. Co, Harvard Medical School, Karen Donelan, Brandeis University and Massachusetts General Hospital, Brian G. Skotko, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Amy Torres, Massachusetts General Hospital, Jonathan P. Winickoff, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and Stephanie L. Santoro, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Abstract:
We recruited caregivers of individuals ages 0-21 with Down syndrome (DS) to complete an electronic survey. Multiple recruitment sources and methods were used. From 2023-2024, we received 542 valid, complete survey responses. We found the most success with use of DS affiliate organizations, the DS-Connect® contact registry for DS, and outreach to DS clinic patients. Of those who started the screener, 1,569 people screened in and were eligible; of those eligible, 730 (46.5%) consented. We experienced bots and fraudsters despite efforts to minimize those respondents from the outset. We present lessons learned in surveying caregivers from a low-incidence medical condition, with focus on our experience with invalid respondents, to inform other researchers conducting survey research related to genetic syndromes.
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