Improving recruitment to healthcare research studies: clinician judgements explored for opting mental health service users out of the time to change viewpoint survey

AbstractBackground: There are significant challenges across the research pathway, including participant recruitment. This paper aims to explore the impact of clinician recruitment decision-making on sampling for a national mental health survey.Method: Clinical teams in 20 English mental healthcare provider organisations screened caseload lists, opting-out people whom, in their judgement, should not be approached to participate in a survey about stigma and discrimination. The reasons for each individual opted-out were requested. We assess these reasons against study recruitment criteria and investigated the impact of variations in opt-out rates on response rates and study findings.Results: Over 4 years (2009–2012), 37% (28,592 people) of the total eligible sampling frame were excluded. Exclusions comprised three categories: clinical teams did not screen their lists within recruitment period (12,392 people: 44%); protocol-specified exclusions (8364 people: 29%); clinician opt-outs queried by research team (...