IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/sprchp/978-1-4419-1586-3_10.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Recruitment of Study Participants

In: Fundamentals of Clinical Trials

Author

Listed:
  • Lawrence M. Friedman

  • Curt D. Furberg

    (Wake Forest University, School of Medicine)

  • David L. DeMets

    (University of Wisconsin, Department of Biostatistics & Medical Informatics)

Abstract

Often the most difficult task in a clinical trial involves obtaining sufficient study participants within a reasonable time. Time is a critical factor for both scientific and logistical reasons. From a scientific viewpoint, there is an optimal window of time within which a clinical trial can and should be completed. Changes in medical practice, including introduction of new treatment options, may make the trial outdated before it is completed. Other investigators may answer the questions sooner. In terms of logistics, the longer recruitment extends beyond the initially allotted recruitment periods, the greater the pressure becomes to meet the goal. Lagging recruitment will also reduce the statistical power of the trial. Costs increase, frustration, and discouragement often follow. The primary reasons for recruitment failure include overoptimistic expectations, failure to start on time, inadequate planning, and insufficient effort.

Suggested Citation

  • Lawrence M. Friedman & Curt D. Furberg & David L. DeMets, 2010. "Recruitment of Study Participants," Springer Books, in: Fundamentals of Clinical Trials, edition 0, chapter 0, pages 183-198, Springer.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-1-4419-1586-3_10
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4419-1586-3_10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a
    for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-1-4419-1586-3_10. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.