RECRUITMENT IN THE TRIAL OF NONPHARMACOLOGIC INTERVENTION IN THE ELDERLY (TONE)

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness of different approaches to par ticipant enrollment in a behavior modification trial. DESIGN: Concurre nt, prospective evaluation performed in context of recruitment for a r andomized, controlled trial. SETTING: Four study centers located in Ba ltimore, Maryland, Memphis, Tennessee New Brunswick, New Jersey, and W inston-Salem, North Carolina. PARTICIPANTS: Men and women aged 60 to 8 0 years who were being treated with a prescription medication for cont rol of hypertension. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Visit counts and percent y ields were assessed at each stage of the screening and randomization p rocess. Logistic regression was used to contrast the randomization yie lds for different recruitment strategies and to explore the impact of sociodemographic characteristics and geographic location on recruitmen t yields RESULTS: The overall randomization yields from a prescreen co ntact and a first screening visit to enrollment in the trial were 11% and 31%, respectively. Randomization yields varied significantly by pa rticipant age, education, and marital status. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate the feasibility of recruitment for trials of nonpharmacol ogic interventions in older people and suggest that mass mailing and m ass media advertising campaigns provide an effective means of enrollin g in such studies participants with a broad range of personal characte ristics.