Strategies for recruiting participants into randomized controlled trials: A cross-program profile of the PROMISE demonstration program

BACKGROUND: Recruiting and enrolling participants into randomized controlled trials is difficult. Reviews of the extent to which trials achieve targets on time and within budget commonly report failure or delay. PROMISE—Promoting Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (SSI)—a six program cooperative study of randomized trials testing effectiveness of service programs for transition-aged youth with disabilities receiving SSI benefits on employment and educational outcomes, provides an unusual opportunity to describe successful recruitment and enrollment into large-scale trials. OBJECTIVE: The purpose is to profile recruitment strategies used within and across the six PROMISE programs for meeting enrollment targets of SSI youth and families. METHODS: From descriptive data extracted from process analysis reports of each of the six PROMISE programs, we constructed cross-program profiles of recruitment strategies. RESULTS: All six programs met their enrollment targets on time. Although they contacted most potential participants through initial mailings and telephone calls, the programs reported that multiple contacts using multiple strategies, especially resource-intensive in person meetings and assignment of staff full-time to recruitment activities, were needed to meet enrollment targets. CONCLUSIONS: Because all PROMISE programs met their required enrollment targets, researchers designing large-scale, field-based randomized controlled trials may benefit from using a mix of recruitment strategies deployed by full-time recruiters.