TY - JOUR
T1 - The Effect of a Personalized Newsletter to Physical Therapists on Patient Recruitment: A Cluster Randomized Trial in Primary Physiotherapy Care
T2 - A Cluster Randomized Trial in Primary Physiotherapy Care
AU - Thoomes-de Graaf, Marloes
AU - Wiersma, Rienke E.
AU - Karel, Yasmaine
AU - Duijn, Edwin
AU - Spek, Bea
AU - Rizopoulos, Dimitris
AU - Scholten-Peeters, Gwendolijne G. M.
AU - Verhagen, Arianne P.
N1 - Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2020/6
Y1 - 2020/6
N2 - Objective: To assess the effect of a personalized newsletter compared with a standard newsletter on patient recruitment in physiotherapy research. Methods: We performed a cluster-randomized trial including 120 physiotherapists who recruited patients for a prospective cohort and were randomly assigned to either receiving personalized feedback in a newsletter (intervention group) or a standard newsletter (control group). We calculated the difference in the number of patients included in the study corrected for inclusion time between both groups. Results: The physiotherapists in the control group (n = 59) included 110 patients (35.4% of the total number of patients included) compared with an inclusion of 200 patients (64.6% of the total number of patients included) by the physiotherapists in the intervention group (n = 61), a difference of 90 patients in favor of the intervention group. However, when corrected for inclusion time and a cluster effect, we found no statistically significant difference between both groups. In addition, therapists who did not include a single patient (inactive therapists) were evenly divided between the 2 groups (n = 29 [49%] in the control group; n = 30 [49%] in the intervention group). Conclusions: A personalized newsletter does not significantly increase the number of recruited patients by physiotherapists. However, therapists receiving personalized feedback recruited nearly double the number of patients compared with the ones receiving standard feedback.
AB - Objective: To assess the effect of a personalized newsletter compared with a standard newsletter on patient recruitment in physiotherapy research. Methods: We performed a cluster-randomized trial including 120 physiotherapists who recruited patients for a prospective cohort and were randomly assigned to either receiving personalized feedback in a newsletter (intervention group) or a standard newsletter (control group). We calculated the difference in the number of patients included in the study corrected for inclusion time between both groups. Results: The physiotherapists in the control group (n = 59) included 110 patients (35.4% of the total number of patients included) compared with an inclusion of 200 patients (64.6% of the total number of patients included) by the physiotherapists in the intervention group (n = 61), a difference of 90 patients in favor of the intervention group. However, when corrected for inclusion time and a cluster effect, we found no statistically significant difference between both groups. In addition, therapists who did not include a single patient (inactive therapists) were evenly divided between the 2 groups (n = 29 [49%] in the control group; n = 30 [49%] in the intervention group). Conclusions: A personalized newsletter does not significantly increase the number of recruited patients by physiotherapists. However, therapists receiving personalized feedback recruited nearly double the number of patients compared with the ones receiving standard feedback.
KW - Clinical Trials, Randomized
KW - Patient Recruitment
KW - Physiotherapy
KW - Primary Care
KW - Psychology
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U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmpt.2019.12.002
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmpt.2019.12.002
M3 - Article
C2 - 32828570
SN - 0161-4754
VL - 43
SP - 476
EP - 482
JO - Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics
JF - Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics
IS - 5
ER -
