Recruitment principles and strategies for supportive care research in pediatric oncology

Recruiting participants for focus groups in health research: a meta-research study

BACKGROUND

Focus groups (FGs) are an established method in health research to capture a full range of different perspectives on a particular research question. The extent to which they are effective depends, not least, on the composition of the participants. This study aimed to investigate how published FG studies plan and conduct the recruitment of study participants. We looked at what kind of information is reported about recruitment practices and what this reveals about the comprehensiveness of the actual recruitment plans and practices.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic search of FG studies in PubMed and Web of Science published between 2018 and 2024, and included n = 80 eligible publications in the analysis. We used a text extraction sheet to collect all relevant recruitment information from each study. We then coded the extracted text passages and summarised the findings descriptively.

RESULTS

Nearly half (n = 38/80) of the studies were from the USA and Canada, many addressing issues related to diabetes, cancer, mental health and chronic diseases. For recruitment planning, 20% reported a specific sampling target, while 6% used existing studies or literature for organisational and content planning. A further 10% reported previous recruitment experience of the researchers. The studies varied in terms of number of participants (range = 7-202) and group size (range = 7-20). Recruitment occurred often in healthcare settings, rarely through digital channels and everyday places. FG participants were most commonly recruited by the research team (21%) or by health professionals (16%), with less collaboration with public organisations (10%) and little indication of the number of people involved (13%). A financial incentive for participants was used in 43% of cases, and 19% reported participatory approaches to plan and carry out recruitment. 65 studies (81%) reported a total of 58 limitations related to recruitment.

CONCLUSIONS

The reporting of recruitment often seems to be incomplete, and its performance lacking. Hence, guidelines and recruitment recommendations designed to assist researchers are not yet adequately serving their purpose. Researchers may benefit from more practical support, such as early training on key principles and options for effective recruitment strategies provided by institutions in their immediate professional environment, e.g. universities, faculties or scientific associations.

The feasibility and acceptability of collecting psychosocial outcome measures embedded within a precision medicine trial for childhood cancer

BACKGROUND

Patient-reported outcomes measures (PROMs) are increasingly being collected within cancer clinical trials, yet limited literature on the feasibility and acceptability of doing so.

METHODS

We collected parent-proxy and adolescent (≥12 years old) PROMs through a longitudinal, psychosocial sub-study ('PRISM-Impact') embedded in a precision medicine trial for children with poor prognosis cancer ('PRISM'). We report on feasibility (response, participation, and attrition rates; follow-up and responding to elevated distress) and acceptability (parents' perceived benefit/burden of participation; and impact on decision to participate in PRISM) of PRISM-Impact.

RESULTS

Over the reporting period, 462 families were eligible for PRISM-Impact. Family and adolescent response rates were 53% and 45%, respectively. Parents whose child had relapsed were more likely to participate in PRISM-Impact than parents whose child had not (p < 0.001). Parent and adolescent attrition rates were 30% and 56% respectively. We conducted 478 calls for intake and to follow-up on missing questionnaires, and 122 calls to respond to elevated distress. Parents reported wanting to participate in PRISM-Impact for altruistic reasons and because they valued psychosocial research. Parents reported little-to-no burden and some benefit from participating in PRISM-Impact, with little change in ratings overtime. Most parents felt that participating in PRISM-Impact did not impact their desire to participate in PRISM (72%), with some feeling more eager to participate (19%).

CONCLUSIONS

PRISM-Impact response rates were comparable to other psycho-oncology studies, despite the poor prognosis population. Integration of PROMs within a paediatric oncology trial is acceptable to parents, and may provide a more comprehensive assessment of the impact of trial participation.

Goal-directed therapeutic exercise for paediatric posterior fossa brain tumour survivors: a qualitative analysis of experiences

PURPOSE

To explore child and parent experiences of a 12-week goal-directed therapeutic exercise intervention in paediatric posterior fossa brain tumours survivors and to identify features of the program that influenced program adherence and acceptability.

METHODS

Eleven interviews were conducted; five parent-child dyads (mothers = 83%) and one parent only (mean child age = 10.6 ± 3.0 years; 83% male). Posterior fossa brain tumour survivors, who participated in a weekly goal-directed exercise program for 12 weeks, completed semi-structured interviews to discuss their experience of the program. An inductive content analysis was undertaken. Interviews were transcribed, imported into NVivo and independently coded by two reviewers. Code and content categories were iteratively discussed and refined.

RESULTS

Five content categories were generated: (1) perceived improvements, (2) program logistics, (3) activity selection, (4) connection with the therapist and (5) options for technology. All participants valued the tailored exercise program and described improvements in movement competence. Children and their parents discussed preferring home- and community-based locations and favoured face-to-face delivery. Occasionally, parents reported difficulty completing the home program due to low child motivation or family time restrictions. Multiple families suggested an interactive digital application would be an effective delivery channel for the supplemental home-based program.

CONCLUSION

A goal-directed exercise program delivered at home and in community-based locations was considered valuable and helpful for improving movement competence in paediatric survivors of posterior fossa brain tumour.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ACTRN12619000841178 June 12, 2019.

Quality of life and family functioning soon after paediatric brain tumour diagnosis: A cross-sectional observational study

PURPOSE

There is scant scholarly exploration of quality of life in families with a child who has a brain tumour early after diagnosis, despite this being a pivotal point in their illness trajectory. We aimed to describe quality of life in children and their parents, and family functioning, within six months of diagnosis; and to examine if this differed for various subpopulations.

METHOD

This is a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data of an ongoing longitudinal survey. Parents/carers of a child who had a diagnosis of a malignant or non-malignant brain tumour and were receiving care at the Queensland Children's Hospital were invited to complete an electronic survey. Univariate analyses were conducted with potential covariates and each dependent variable (child quality of life, caregiver quality of life, family functioning). Potential relationships between the outcome variables were explored through Pearson's correlation coefficient.

RESULTS

Seventy-nine diverse families completed the survey between August 2020 and September 2022. Caregiver quality of life did not differ by the child's tumour risk grade. It was lowest for those with a child who had undergone chemotherapy and/or radiation compared to surgery only, and for those with a child who had been diagnosed 6 months prior to survey completion compared to more recent diagnoses. A third of families reported problematic family functioning. Lower levels of problematic family functioning were associated with higher caregiver quality of life (r = -.49, p < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest caregivers need greater psychosocial support early after diagnosis, and supports the need for family-centred care that fosters communication and cohesiveness.

Recruitment and retention challenges and strategies in randomized controlled trials of psychosocial interventions for children with cancer and their parents: a collective case study

In pediatric oncology there are few examples of successful recruitment and retention strategies in psychosocial care research. This study aims to summarize experiences, challenges, and strategies for conducting randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of psychosocial intervention studies among children with cancer and their parent(s). We conducted a collective case study. To identify the cases, Pubmed and two trial registries were searched for ongoing and finished RCTs of psychosocial intervention studies for children with cancer and their parents. Online semi-structured expert interviews discussing recruitment and retention challenges and strategies were performed with principal investigators and research staff members of the identified cases. Nine studies were identified. Investigators and staff from seven studies participated, highlighting challenges and strategies within three major themes: eligibility, enrollment and retention. Regarding eligibility, collaborating constructively with healthcare professionals and involving them before the start of the study were essential. Being flexible, training the research staff, enabling alignment with the participants' situation, and providing consistency in contact between the research staff member and the families were important strategies for optimizing enrollment and retention. All studies followed a stepped process in recruitment.  Conclusion: Although recruitment and retention in some selected studies were successful, there is a paucity of evidence on experienced recruitment and retention challenges in pediatric psychosocial research and best practices on optimizing them. The strategies outlined in this study can help researchers optimize their protocol and trial-implementation, and contribute to better psychosocial care for children with cancer and their parents.  Trial Registration: This study is not a clinical trial. What is Known: • Performing RCTs is challenging, particularly in pediatric psychosocial research when both the child and parent are targeted. Recruitment and retention are common concerns. In pediatric oncology, there are few examples of successful recruitment and retention strategies in psychosocial care research. What is New: • Key strategies to collaborate constructively with healthcare professionals were outlined. Being flexible, training the research staff, alignment with the participant's situations and providing consistency in contact between the research staff member and the families were considered as essential strategies.

Intentional and actional components of engaged participation in public health research studies: qualitative synthesis of a recruitment and retention process into the theory-informed INTACT-RS framework

BACKGROUND

Ensuring motivated and successful study participation is a key challenge in the design and conduct of health research studies. Previously, recruitment barriers and facilitators have been identified mainly from experience, and rarely based on theoretical approaches. We developed a framework of intentional and actional components of engaged participation in public health research studies (INTACT-RS), informed by psychological behavioral models. We aimed a) to identify precise indicators for each framework component and b) to better understand which components and decision processes are essential for study participants.

METHODS

Within a multicenter research network, we applied various approaches to recruit parents of newborns, pediatricians, and midwives. All recruitment processes were documented from the perspective of both participants and researchers. We used different qualitative and quantitative data material, which we applied in a multistage process according to the basic principles of qualitative content analysis.

RESULTS

INTACT-RS encompasses pre-intentional, intentional and actional phases with a total of n = 15 components covering all aspects of an individual's involvement with a research study. During intention formation, an understanding of efforts and benefits, why participation is valuable beyond contributing to research, and how others perceive the study, were particularly important to (potential) participants. Subsequently (intentional phase), participants consider how and when participation is compatible with their own resources, ability and availability, and hence seek for close communication with, and flexibility and support from the research team. During and after (initial) participation (actional phase), participants' assessment of whether expectations and interests have been met impact crucial further steps, especially the willingness to continue and to recommend participation to others. A strong topic-wise and or supportive participation interest as well as active, continuous exchange with the researchers appeared to be central determinants of study completion and data validity.

CONCLUSIONS

A theoretical framework is now available to plan and conduct recruitment of different target groups, which accounts for essential motivational and volitional decision-making processes. Based on empirically specified constructs, possible barriers can be addressed even before the initial recruitment process. Therefore, recommendations for scientific practice have been formulated.

Therapeutic exercise interventions in pediatric survivors of brain cancer and other solid tumors: A scoping review

Background

Improved survival rates for children with solid tumors presents an ongoing challenge of how to maximize quality of survivorship and effectively manage the short- and long-term complications of disease and treatment. To gain an understanding of the extent and nature of research pertaining to therapeutic exercise interventions and identify knowledge gaps, we conducted a scoping review of exercise training studies conducted in pediatric survivors of brain cancer and other solid tumors.

Method

A systematic literature search was performed across four electronic databases. Papers were selected for full-text review if they included participants treated for brain cancer or other solid tumors, with at least 50% of participants aged ≤ 21 years, evaluated an exercise intervention ≥2-weeks in duration, and were published in an English, peer-reviewed journal. We included the following quantitative study designs; randomized controlled trials, non-randomized trials, and single-arm pre-test-post-test.

Results

Of the 7,482 citations identified, 17 papers met the inclusion criteria (presenting findings from eleven studies). Two studies were randomized controlled trials, five studies were non-randomized controlled trials, and four studies were a single-arm pre-test post-test design. Average age of participants ranged from 7.3-15.5 years, and time since diagnosis ranged from 3 to 70 months. Five studies included participants with brain tumors exclusively, three studies included other solid tumors, and three studies included a mixed sample (brain and other solid tumors). A wide range of exercise modalities were employed, including cycle ergometry, resistance training, sport, yoga, and active gaming. The length of the exercise program ranged from 3-40 weeks and frequency from 3-11 sessions per week. Exercise session duration ranged from 15-180 min, with most studies reporting 30-90-min sessions. Adherence ranged from 77 to 100%, with none of the studies reporting adverse events. Studies reported improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, functional strength, physical activity, and quality of life.

Conclusions

A small number of mostly low methodological quality studies have examined the effects of therapeutic exercise in pediatric survivors of solid tumors. Although limited, the extant literature supports the feasibility and safety of therapeutic exercise interventions for pediatric survivors of brain cancer and other solid tumors.