Recruitment of participants into research studies remains a major concern for investigators. Using clinical teams to identify potentially eligible patients can present a significant barrier. To overcome this, we implemented a process for using our patient portal, called MyChart, as a new institutional recruitment option utilizing our electronic health record’s existing functionality.

To streamline the institutional approval process, we established a working group comprised of representatives from human subject protection, information technology, and privacy and vetted our process with many stakeholder groups. Our specific process for study approval is described and started with a consultation with our recruitment and retention function funded through our Clinical and Translational Science Award.

The time from consultation to the first message(s) sent ranged from 84 to 442 days and declined slightly over time. The overall patient response rate to MyChart messages about available research studies was 23% with one third of those saying they were interested in learning more. The response rate for Black and Hispanic patients was about 50% that of White patients.

Many different types of studies from any medical specialty successfully identified interested patients using this option. Study teams needed support in defining appropriate inclusion/exclusion criteria to identify the relevant population in the electronic health records and they needed assistance writing study descriptions in plain language. Using MyChart for recruitment addressed a critical barrier and opened up the opportunity to provide a full recruitment consultation to identify additional recruitment channels the study teams would not have considered otherwise.

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness and a common indication for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Research is lacking on the factors that influence response to acute ECT treatment in schizophrenia patients.

This study examined the response rate and associated factors in patients with schizophrenia undergoing bilateral ECT.

Demographic data, clinical characteristics, ECT data and treatment response were respectively reviewed in patients with schizophrenia undergoing bilateral ECT from January 2013 to June 2022.

Forty-six patients were included. Nine responded after the first three sessions, 17 after six sessions, 20 after nine sessions, 25 after 12 sessions and 28 after the last ECT session, cumulatively. The mean of the baseline Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale psychotic symptom subscale score was significantly higher in responders (17.0) than non-responders (10.9) (P < 0.05). The mean of duration of electroencephalogram seizure was significantly longer in responders (53.9) than in non-responders (42.7). There was no association between demographic and ECT data and treatment response. Among 28 responders, 20 responded to ECT after nine sessions (faster responders) and eight responded later (slower responders). The number of failed antipsychotics prior to ECT was 2.8 for faster responders and 4.4 for slower responders (P = 0.02). Nominal logistic regression showed that the number of failed antipsychotics prior to ECT was associated with speed of response to ECT (P = 0.037, odds ratio = 1.77).

ECT is an effective treatment for schizophrenia and may be influenced by the number of failed antipsychotics prior to ECT.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the recruitment strategies, the response rates and the reasons for non-response of Malaysian public and private primary care doctors in an international survey on the quality, cost and equity in primary care.

Low research participation by primary care doctors, especially those working in the private sector, is a challenge to quality benchmarking.

Primary care doctors were sampled through multi-stage sampling. The first stage-sampling unit was the primary care clinics, which were randomly sampled from five states in Malaysia to reflect their proportions in two strata – sector (public/private) and location (urban/rural). Strategies through endorsement, personalised invitation, face-to-face interview and non-monetary incentives were used to recruit public and private doctors. Data collection was carried out by fieldworkers through structured questionnaires.

A total of 221 public and 239 private doctors participated in the study. Among the public doctors, 99.5% response rates were obtained. Among the private doctors, a 32.8% response rate was obtained. Totally, 30% of private clinics were uncontactable by telephone, and when these were excluded, the overall response rate is 46.8%. The response rate of the private clinics across the states ranges from 31.5% to 34.0%. A total of 167 answered the non-respondent questionnaire. Among the non-respondents, 77.4 % were male and 22.6% female (P = 0.011). There were 33.6% of doctors older than 65 years (P = 0.003) and 15.9% were from the state of Sarawak (P = 0.016) when compared to non-respondents. Reason for non-participation included being too busy (51.8%), not interested (32.9%), not having enough patients (9.1%) and did not find it beneficial (7.9%). Our study demonstrated the feasibility of obtaining favourable response rate in a survey involving doctors from public and private primary care settings

Achieving good response rates to population surveys from hard to reach groups in deprived areas can be challenging.

To explore and compare different approaches to improving response rates in an economically deprived multicultural area.

Following a lower than anticipated response rate in a pilot study for a postal questionnaire survey of chronic pain (79/653 (12%)), we conducted a second pilot involving a shorter postal survey and separate collection of more detailed information in a waiting room survey. The second postal survey used a shorter questionnaire, telephone data collection from non-responders by study team members rather than telephone reminders from practice receptionists, and involved a nested randomised-controlled trial (RCT) of hand-addressed versus printed-address envelopes. Both pilots involved subjects randomly selected from the practice registers.

The second pilot postal survey using shorter questionnaires yielded considerably more responses (240/642 (37%)). Our RCT showed that hand-addressed envelopes achieved a slightly higher response rate although not large enough to justify its use in our main study. The waiting room survey was successful in collecting more detailed data from lengthy questionnaires.

A range of methods of questionnaire administration may be required when conducting a survey with a hard to reach group in a deprived and ethnically diverse population. Postal and telephone administration can be used to collect a small amount of data. Face-to-face administration and recruitment can be successful for longer questionnaires.

The purpose of this survey was to establish a database of habitual food and drink consumption in a representative sample of Irish adults, aged 18–64 years. The present paper describes the sampling protocol, response rate and characteristics of the survey population in terms of sex and age groups, seasonality, geographical location, marital status, social class, socio-economic status and education level.

A cross-sectional food consumption survey was carried out. In the Republic of Ireland, a nationally representative sample of adults was randomly selected with a validated two-stage clustered design, using the electoral register as the sampling frame. This method produced a self-weighting or ‘epsem’ sample of individuals, where each adult who was registered to vote had an equal opportunity of being selected. Similarly, in Northern Ireland, a two-stage random sampling procedure was used. The sampling frame was the electoral register, and the sample was stratified by urban/rural and by an index of material deprivation, to ensure representation of each sector of the community. The recruitment procedure was the same in the North and South. An introductory letter with an information leaflet was posted to each selected individual and these were followed up by a visit from a fieldworker, who invited participation in the survey.

Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland between 1997 and 1999.

The response rate, which is the percentage of the total number of people who completed a 7-day food diary (n = 1379) out of the total eligible sample (n = 2177), was 63%. Non-respondents and dropouts constituted 34% and 3%, respectively, of the total eligible sample. Compared with the most recent census figures available, the sample was generally found to be representative in terms of sex and age group profiles, geographical location, marital status, seasonality, social class, socio-economic group and education level. Data on sex and age group and geographical location were collected from non-respondents for comparison with the survey sample. There were no apparent differences between them.

The North/South Ireland Food Consumption Survey has established a Samplino relational database of habitual food and drink consumption, in addition to data on Response rate habitual physical activity, anthropometric measurements, socio-demographic factors, Demographics lifestyle, health status indicators and attitudes, in a nationally representative sample Socio-economic factors of the population of the island of Ireland.