Does Offering an Incentive Payment Improve Recruitment to Clinical Trials and Increase the Proportion of Socially Deprived and Elderly Participants?

In this U.K.-based study, researchers sought to assess the impact on clinical trial recruitment of an incentive of £100 and whether the offer of this payment attracted more elderly and socially deprived patients. The £100 offer led to small but significant improvements in both patient response to a clinical trial invitation letter and in the number of patients who consented to be screened. Yet, the payment did not attract more elderly or socially deprived patients.

Jennings CG, MacDonald TM, Wei L, et al. Does offering an incentive payment improve recruitment to clinical trials and increase the proportion of socially deprived and elderly participants? Trials 2015;16:80.