2025 · Mayo Clinic proceedings. Digital health · open access
Increasing Retention in a Large-Scale Decentralized Clinical Trial: Learnings From the COVID-RED Trial
Zwiers et al.
The finding, in our words
A large decentralised trial investigating a wearable device for COVID-19 detection retained 80.4% of participants at six months and 68.5% until completion. Multivariable analysis identified vaccinated pensioners as a high-risk discontinuation group, and targeted telephone calls reduced their dropout rate to 11.4%, showing that personalised retention strategies can improve engagement in remote diagnostic studies.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
A direct-to-participant, multichannel recruitment strategy enrolled 34,244 older adults into a virtual trial testing an Apple Watch based heart health programme with electrocardiogram and irregular rhythm notification features, achieving broad geographic and gender diversity but under-representing non-White ethnic groups.
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