Recruiting general practitioners as participants for qualitative and experimental primary care studies in Australia
Shannon McKinn A B , Carissa Bonner A B , Jesse Jansen A B and Kirsten McCaffery A B CA Screening and Test Evaluation Program (STEP), School of Public Health, Edward Ford Building (A27), The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
B Centre for Medical Psychology and Evidence-based Decision-making (CeMPED), Edward Ford Building (A27), The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: kirsten.mccaffery@sydney.edu.au
Australian Journal of Primary Health 21(3) 354-359 https://doi.org/10.1071/PY14068
Submitted: 18 April 2014 Accepted: 1 July 2014 Published: 30 July 2014
Abstract
Recruiting general practitioners (GPs) for participation in primary care research is vitally important, but it can be very difficult for researchers to engage time-poor GPs. This paper describes six different strategies used by a research team recruiting Australian GPs for three qualitative interview studies and one experimental study, and reports the response rates and costs incurred. Strategies included: (1) mailed invitations via Divisions of General Practice; (2) electronic newsletters; (3) combining mailed invitations and newsletter; (4) in-person recruitment at GP conferences; (5) conference satchel inserts; and (6) combining in-person recruitment and satchel inserts. Response rates ranged from 0 (newsletter) to 30% (in-person recruitment). Recruitment costs per participant ranged from A$83 (in-person recruitment) to A$232 (satchel inserts). Mailed invitations can be viable for qualitative studies, especially when free/low-cost mailing lists are used, if the response rate is less important. In-person recruitment at GP conferences can be effective for short quantitative studies, where a higher response rate is important. Newsletters and conference satchel inserts were expensive and ineffective.
Additional keywords: cardiovascular disease, general practice, study methods, study recruitment.
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