Age and Ageing Advance Access originally published online on August 20, 2008
Age and Ageing 2008 37(6):659-665; doi:10.1093/ageing/afn159
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Optimising recruitment into a study of physical activity in older people: a randomised controlled trial of different approaches
1 Division of Community Health Sciences, St George's, University of London, Cranmer Terrace, Tooting, London, SW17ORE, UK
2 School of Health and Social Care, Reading University, Whiteknights Lane, Reading, UK
3 Sonning Common Health Centre, Wood Lane, Reading, RG49SW, UK
Address correspondence to: Dr Tess J. Harris. Tel: 0208 725 2798; Fax: 0208 7677697. Email: tharris{at}sgul.ac.uk
Background: physical activity studies in older people often have poor recruitment. Including a questionnaire with the invitation would provide information about non-participants and selection bias, but could reduce recruitment. Telephone contact might encourage participation.
Objective: to test the effects of different strategies for recruitment into a study of physical activity in older people.
Design: factorial randomised controlled trial. Randomisation by household into four groups: telephone contact plus questionnaire, telephone contact only, questionnaire only, neither.
Setting: primary care, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.
Participants: 560 patients 
65 years randomly selected after exclusions.
Interventions: questionnaire to assess health, functional ability and physical activity. Telephone contact by the research nurse a week after sending study information.
Main Outcome Measure: recruitment into physical activity study.
Results: telephone contact increased recruitment: contact 47.9% (134/280), no contact 37.9% (106/280), difference (adjusted for the clustering effect of household) 10.0% (95% CI 0.2-19.8). Questionnaire inclusion did not significantly reduce recruitment: no questionnaire 44.3% (124/280) questionnaire 41.4% (116/280) difference –2.9% (95% CI –12.7–7.0).
Conclusions: telephone contact significantly increased recruitment and should be considered in studies where recruitment may be low. While inclusion of a questionnaire provided valuable information on non-participants and did not significantly reduce recruitment, an adverse recruitment effect could not be excluded.
Keywords: recruitment, response rate, questionnaires, randomised controlled trial, physical activity, older people, elderly
Received 9 August 2007; accepted in revised form 20 March 2008.
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  T J Harris, C G Owen, C R Victor, R Adams, and D G Cook What factors are associated with physical activity in older people, assessed objectively by accelerometry? Br. J. Sports Med., June 1, 2009; 43(6): 442 - 450. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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