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HomeStyles: Strategies Used to Retain Parents of Preschool Children in a Long‐Term Randomized Control Trial
Author(s) -
Delaney Colleen,
MartinBiggers Jennifer T,
Koenings Mallory,
Tonnessen Rebecca,
ByrdBredbenner Carol
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.1152.10
Subject(s) - randomized controlled trial , phone , pedometer , psychology , attendance , medicine , medical education , physical therapy , physical activity , linguistics , philosophy , surgery , economic growth , economics
Randomized control trials (RCTs) are the gold standard in scientific research. Keeping participants actively involved throughout the RCT is critical to success, yet little is published with regard to retention strategies. Thus, this abstract describes the strategies used in the 18‐month HomeStyles childhood obesity prevention RCT to retain parents of preschoolers. Retention strategies included 1) high‐quality, attractive, quick and easy to use intervention materials (i.e., guides) responsive to the wants and needs of parents of preschoolers in written in Spanish and English; 2) flexible 24/7 participation opportunities (e.g., web delivery; online data collection) and implementing strategies to minimize participant burden; 3) elements of surprise, such as sending fun, unexpected guide‐related enhancements (e.g., beach ball, hula hoop) and holiday or reminder cards in eye‐catching mylar envelopes; 4) program identity branding of all RCT materials using the colorful HomeStyles logo to remind parents about the project each time they noticed project materials in their homes or received electronic or mailed items; 5) financial stipends in the form of eGift cards to participants’ favorite stores immediately after completion of RCT questionnaires and opportunities to receive earn extra stipends (e.g., bonus bucks for visiting the website frequently, submitting supplementary data including height, weight, and pedometer readings); 6) consistent contact methods in the form of frequent, friendly, positive multi‐mode communication including messages in the form of encouraging and motivating nudges sent every ~4 days via email, SMS, and/or voice mail, and protocols to reach out to participants by phone, email, and mail as soon as they showed signs of inactivity; 7) immediacy, ease, and consistency, such as making communication with the RCT team easy (toll‐free phone, email) and replying rapidly to participants queries by trained staff using uniform procedures and consistent messaging; 8) English‐ and Spanish‐speaking study personnel; 9) effective research management with trained RCT team members, established protocols for all RCT procedures, frequent monitoring of participant activity and rapid application of retention procedures; 10) providing an equivalent control group intervention (Home Safety) and not labeling this group as “control”; 11) nonfinancial incentives encouraging participants to make small changes towards their goal to maintain confidence and manage stress and reminding parents to keep the goal of an even happier, healthier family at the forefront as they worked to make improvements; 12) ability to easily update contact information each time participants logged on to the project website. The retention procedures used in this RCT have the potential to improve RCT retention in a broad range of nutrition education research studies. Support or Funding Information USDA NIFA #2011‐68001‐30170