Recruitment . . .

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Recruitment . . .

• not rocket science . . . but no project gets off
  the ground without participants . . .
• Viv Maskrey Annie Blyth
• Senior Research Associates
• University of East Anglia, Norwich

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SHARPISH experience
Investigators Collaborators F. Song1 M.
Adeney6 R. Holland1 T. Dyer7 G. Barton1 C.
Slater8 M. Bachmann1 P. Aveyard2 S. Sutton3 J.
Leonardi-Bee4 T. Brandon5
1. Norwich Medical School, University of East
Anglia, UK 2. Primary Care Health Sciences,
University of Oxford, UK 3. Institute of Public
Health, University of Cambridge, UK 4.
Epidemiology and Public Health, University of
Nottingham, UK 5. Tobacco Res and Intervention
Program, University of South Florida, USA 6.
SmokeFree Norfolk, Norfolk Community Health and
Care Trust 7. Norwich CRTU 8. NHS Norfolk Stop
Smoking Services
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SHARPISH background

• NHS Stop Smoking services are cost-effective to
  help smokers stop smoking
• 50 of smokers who set a quit date stop smoking
  at 4 weeks (Judge 2005)
• However, smoking relapse is common among
  short-term quitters
• 75 of the 4-week quitters go back to regular
  smoking between 4 and 52 weeks (Ferguson 2005)

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SHARPISH Study design

• Based on meta-analysis , showing
• Coping skills may reduce smoking relapse in
  people able to quit for at least one week
• A randomised, open, controlled study
• N 1,400 (700 in each arm) study duration 3
  years
• Quitters recruited by Specialist Stop Smoking
  Advisors
• Sending booklets to participants
• 2 telephone follow-up interviews (at 3 and 12
  months)
• CO-test confirmation of abstinence at 12 months
• (Song F, Huttunen-Lenz M, Holland R.
  Effectiveness of complex psycho-educational
  interventions for smoking relapse prevention an
  exploratory meta-analysis. J Pub Hlth 2009
  doi10.1093/.

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SHARPISH Intervention
Forever Free Booklets BOOKLET 1 An
Overview BOOKLET 2 Smoking Urges BOOKLET 3
Smoking And Weight BOOKLET 4 What If You Have A
Cigarette? BOOKLET 5 Your Health BOOKLET 6
Smoking, Stress, Mood BOOKLET 7 Lifestyle
Balance BOOKLET 8 Life Without Cigarettes
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Funder HTA Disclaimer

• Acknowledgement This project was funded by the
  NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme and
  will be published in full in the Health
  Technology Assessment journal series.
• Visit the HTA programme website for more details
  www.hta.ac.uk/link to project page. The views and
  opinions expressed therein are those of the
  authors and do not necessarily reflect those of
  the Department of Health

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Viv and Annie

• Study Co-ordinators
• Job sharing
• Two for the price of one
• Two heads are better than one
• First meeting reported on
• Numbers recruited
• Numbers not recruited
• Okay, but not enough
• What do we do now?

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Back to the drawing board

• Thought about our ethical code
• Respect
• Honesty
• Aim to be
• Enthusiastic
• Tenacious
• Encouraging
• Appreciative
• . . . pathologically positive

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A R M S

• A - ahead
• R - realistic
• M - monitor
• S - support

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A R M S

• AHEAD
• Recruiters events, and be there
• Outside bodies to raise profile
• Possible dips and peaks in recruitment
• REALSITIC
• What recruiters can do be respectful
• What you can do
• Be prepared to let go

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A R M S

• MONITOR
• Systematic flaws in forms, procedures
• Fix things before they become entrenched
• Identify successes and failures and learn
• SUPPORT
• At any and every opportunity
• Encourage successes, even small ones
• Really care about their work, engender this for
  project too

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Black ducks and pink ducks

•  

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Practical application of ARMS

• Ensure positive presence at meetings
• Anonymised quotes
• Poems, small tokens
• Listen to ideas
• Occasional emails
• Updates
• Congratulations
• Fun things
• Parties, refresher evenings, quizzes
• . . . raise the profile . . . be memorable!

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How was recruitment going?
First 11 months recruitment 550/733 (75)
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What to do?

• The possibilities are
• 1. Improve recruiters recruitment rates
• 2. Increase number of recruiters
• 3. Increase number of sites

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What did we do?

• 1. Recruiters are doing really well, continue to
  support
• 2. Increased number of recruiters
• With help from PCRN
• Enlisted advisors in primary care
• 3. Increased number of sites
• With help from PCRN
• Enlisted Suffolk, Herts, GYW, Lincs

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What happened?
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What happened?

• Brilliant . . .
• But what about follow up?
• 92 at 2 months / 87.5 at 11 months

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For good follow up . . .

• ULTRA FLEXIBLE
• Work evenings
• Work weekends
• Travel about
• Seek help

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REMEMBER . . .

• Why people participate -
• Helping others
• Future patients
• Clinicians
• Help medical research
• Dont have to be of benefit
• Weigh up perceived risk
• Christina Jerosch-Herold, SCoRD, UEA 2011

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REMEMBER . . . A R M S

• A - ahead
• R - realistic
• M - monitor
• S support
• . . . and be memorable

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Thanks to . . .

• HTA
• PCRN
• Stop Smoking Services
• Health trainers
• Recruiters
• Our institutions
• Trial Management Team
• Steering Committee