Does offering an incentive payment improve recruitment to clinical trials and increase the proportion of socially deprived and elderly participants?

Table 1 Overview of the five clinical trials used in this study ^a

Trial	Sponsor	Outline
SCOT [10] (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00447759)	University of Dundee	Trial comparing the cardiovascular safety of celecoxib with that of other traditional NSAIDs in patients older than 60 years of age who are taking long-term NSAIDs for arthritis
FAST (EudraCT number: 2011-001883-23)	University of Dundee	Trial comparing the cardiovascular safety of febuxostat versus allopurinol in patients over the age of 60 years with symptomatic hyperuricaemia
PATHWAY 1 (EudraCT number: 2008-007749-29)	University of Cambridge	Trial of newly diagnosed hypertension in patients aged 18 to 79 years comparing monotherapy with dual therapy as initial hypertension treatment
PATHWAY 2 (EudraCT number: 2008-007149-30)	University of Cambridge	Trial investigating treatment of resistant hypertension in patients aged 18 to 79 years with uncontrolled blood pressure on three anti-hypertensive agents
PATHWAY 3 (EudraCT number: 2009-010068-41)	University of Cambridge	Trial comparing single-agent and combination diuretic therapy for low-renin hypertension in patients aged 18 to 80 years with at least one component of the metabolic syndrome

^aFAST, Febuxostat versus Allopurinol Streamlined Trial; NSAID, Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug; PATHWAY, Prevention and Treatment of Hypertension with Algorithm Guided Therapy, British Heart Foundation–funded trials; SCOT, Standard care versus Celecoxib Outcome Trial.

ISSN: 1745-6215