Abstract 20: Recruitment Strategies To Increase Diversity And Enrollment In Behavioral Clinical Trials
Background: Increasing rates of obesity are a major contributor to CV disease among women of reproductive age, especially Black women. Enrollment of racially diverse populations in behavioral weight loss trials is suboptimal and may be impacted by recruitment approaches. Our objectives are to evaluate the effectiveness of recruitment strategies informed by principles of behavioral economics on the enrollment of women into a weight loss trial and to understand the impact of race and insurance.
Methods: We tested 4 strategies to enroll postpartum women with CV risk factors into a behavioral weight loss trial. 1,047 individuals who met inclusion criteria in the electronic health record were randomized to receive one of two personalized emails. Email 1 stated that “we reserved a spot” in the study for the patient. Email 2 asked the patient to “commit to health.” Patients who did not respond or have an email address were then randomized to receive a mailer or mailer plus baby bib (gift). All groups were asked to sign up for a virtual information session. We compared response rates between the 2 email and 2 mail strategies. We identified participant characteristics associated with signing up using multivariate logistic regression.
Results: Mean age was 31.3 years, 65% were Black and 52% had Medicaid. 1000 patients were randomized to email 1 (n=497) and email 2 (n=503). Response rates were similar in the email groups (17.7% vs. 20.3%, p=0.299). 849 patients were randomized to the mailer (n=424) or mailer plus gift (n=425). Response rates were low but did not differ by strategy (2.6% vs. 3.8%, p=0.331), and largely did not vary by race or insurance (Table). In multivariable analysis, Medicaid insurance was associated with lower odds of signing up for an info session, but race was not.
Conclusion: A tailored email is a low-cost and time effective strategy to recruit racially diverse women in a behavioral weight loss trial, though women with Medicaid insurance may require additional outreach.
