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

Table 4 Cost per additional responding or consented patient from first invitation letter by trial ^a

	Increase in positive response with incentive	Cost per additional patient	Increase in consented patients with incentive	Cost per additional consented patient
Overall	6.9%	£1,549	5.1%	£1,961
FAST	12.0%	£933	13.1%	£763
SCOT	8.5%	£1,276	6.2%	£1,613
PATHWAY 1	−4.0%	N/A	−2.0%	N/A
PATHWAY 2	1.4%	£7,243	−4.3%	N/A
PATHWAY 3	8.7%	£1,249	4.2%	£2,381

^aFAST, Febuxostat versus Allopurinol Streamlined Trial; N/A, Not applicable; 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