Publication date: Jun 23, 2026
Recruitment plays a critical role in the success of a clinical trial, but recruiting older persons with cognitive impairment (PwCI)-caregiver (CG) dyads for behavioral intervention studies during the COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges. We explore recruitment strategies and sources for an evidence- and telephone-based, tailored activity engagement, and skill-building randomized control trial involving older PwCI-CG dyads. Multiple recruitment sources and strategies were used, including direct/in-clinic referrals, healthcare system databases, and advertisements through established internal and external connections, and research partnerships. A total of 210 PwCI-CG dyads were enrolled into the study. The most successful recruitment sources for making initial contact, reaching, screening, and enrolling eligible dyads were a healthcare system database and a volunteer participant registry (46% and 37%, respectively). Future studies should consider utilizing healthcare system databases and state-volunteer participant registries when conducting dyadic recruitment, as these sources greatly improved initial outreach and enrollment rates. gov ID NCT04515875.
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Covid | Caregivers |
| Healthcare | Cognitive impairment |
| Nct04515875 | Community-based |
| Pandemic | Dyads |
| Recruiting | Recruitment |
| Recruitment strategies |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| drug | DRUGBANK | Spinosad |
| disease | MESH | cognitive impairment |
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 pandemic |