Abdulhussein, Dalia;
Yap, Timothy E;
Manzar, Haider;
Miodragovic, Serge;
Cordeiro, Francesca;
(2022)
Factors impacting participation in research during the COVID-19 pandemic: results from a survey of patients in the ophthalmology outpatient department.
Trials
, 23
(1)
, Article 823. 10.1186/s13063-022-06748-1.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Understanding public and patient attitudes to clinical research is paramount to successful recruitment. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to additional hurdles in achieving this. Our aim is to understand the current factors and attitudes towards clinical trial participation in order to assist in recruitment to clinical trials. METHODS: We conducted face-to-face interviews with patients in the outpatient department at a tertiary eye hospital facilitated by a 32-item questionnaire developed by the research team. Patient characteristics were correlated with their responses, in addition to qualitative thematic text analysis. RESULTS: A total of 53 patients were interviewed. Forty per cent indicated that they would be willing to participate in clinical research in the current climate. General motivating factors for involvement in research included personal gain, altruism and contribution to innovation. Factors limiting participation included concerns regarding own safety, inconvenience, accessibility and lack of benefit. 22.6% of participants felt that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed their outlook on research. These were categorised into positive (increased awareness of the importance and need for research, altruism) and negative (increased anxiety, need to minimise exposure to the hospital environment) influences. CONCLUSIONS: Factors influencing patients' decisions to participate in trials are similar to those observed prior to COVID-19 but with an increased focus on the environment the research is conducted in. The COVID-19 pandemic has had positive and negative impacts on patient attitudes towards research. Trial design, with a particular focus on setting and safety measures, in reassuring patients is increasingly important.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Factors impacting participation in research during the COVID-19 pandemic: results from a survey of patients in the ophthalmology outpatient department |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s13063-022-06748-1 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06748-1 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, Patient and Public Involvement, Patient attitudes to trials, Trial recruitment, COVID-19, Clinical Trials as Topic, Humans, Ophthalmology, Outpatients, Pandemics, Patient Participation, Patient Selection, Surveys and Questionnaires |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Institute of Ophthalmology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10157170 |
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