The Study
Recruiting general practice patients for large clinical trials: lessons from the Aspirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) study
This study looks at how doctors were recruited to join a big health trial and what factors made it easier or harder. It shows that location, the age of the local population, and how the trial was set up are connected to how many people joined, but it doesn't prove that these factors cause success in every situation.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
This study looked at what helped doctors in Australia successfully sign up older adults for a major health trial. It found that location, patient age, local wealth, and how quickly doctors started the process all played a big role.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 562 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes, this is highly significant for healthcare research, as it shows how to efficiently enroll older adults in clinical trials by targeting specific regions and simplifying doctor involvement.
- 2Doctors in regional areas were 1.45 to 1.86 times more likely to recruit than city doctors.
- 3Each 1% more elderly residents boosted recruitment odds by 10%.
- 4Starting recruitment quickly led to more participants, while delays cut numbers down.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Medical Journal of Australia
Year
2018
Authors
J. Lockery, T. Collyer, W. Abhayaratna, S. Fitzgerald, J. McNeil, M. Nelson, S. Orchard, C. Reid, N. Stocks, R. Trevaks, R. Woods
Related Content
Claims (5)
Giving doctors better support, like paying them for their time and cutting down on paperwork, helps them join and run medical research studies more easily.
Doctors in regional and remote areas are actually better at signing up older patients for medical research studies than doctors in big cities. This suggests that smaller, less crowded clinics might have easier ways to connect with and enroll participants for large health studies.
The demographic composition of a general practice catchment area strongly influences recruitment efficiency, with each one percentage point increase in the proportion of residents aged 70 years or older associated with a 10% increase in the likelihood of a general practitioner successfully randomising at least one trial participant. This highlights the critical importance of aligning trial target demographics with local population age structures to optimize enrollment rates.
Medical practices in wealthier neighborhoods are more successful at signing up patients for clinical trials. This might be because people in these areas have better access to health information, higher health literacy, or are more interested in participating in research.
If doctors wait too long to start recruiting patients for a study, they end up signing up far fewer people overall. Getting started quickly and staying on top of follow-ups is key to keeping recruitment on track.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.