{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,26]],"date-time":"2026-02-26T08:02:37Z","timestamp":1772092957802,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,17]],"date-time":"2021-03-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1615939200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,17]],"date-time":"2021-03-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1615939200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100007601","name":"Horizon 2020","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["116076"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["116076"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100007601","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Universit\u00e4tsklinikum Bonn"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["BMC Med Res Methodol"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Recruiting asymptomatic participants with early disease stages into studies is challenging and only little is known about facilitators and barriers to screening and recruitment of study participants. Thus we assessed factors associated with screening rates in the MACUSTAR study, a multi-centre, low-interventional cohort study of early stages of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Screening rates per clinical site and per week were compiled and applicable recruitment factors were assigned to respective time periods. A generalized linear mixed-effects model including the most relevant recruitment factors identified via in-depth interviews with study personnel was fitted to the screening data. Only participants with intermediate AMD were considered.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>A total of 766 individual screenings within 87\u2009weeks were available for analysis. The mean screening rate was 0.6\u2009\u00b1\u20090.9 screenings per week among all sites. The participation at investigator teleconferences (relative risk increase 1.466, 95% CI [1.018\u20132.112]), public holidays (relative risk decrease 0.466, 95% CI [0.367\u20130.591]) and reaching 80% of the site\u2019s recruitment target (relative risk decrease 0.699, 95% CI [0.367\u20130.591]) were associated with the number of screenings at an individual site level.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Careful planning of screening activities is necessary when recruiting early disease stages in multi-centre observational or low-interventional studies. Conducting teleconferences with local investigators can increase screening rates. When planning recruitment, seasonal and saturation effects at clinical site level need to be taken into account.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Trial registration<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p><jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\" ext-link-type=\"uri\" xlink:href=\"http:\/\/clinicaltrials.gov\">ClinicalTrials.gov<\/jats:ext-link><jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\" ext-link-type=\"uri\" xlink:href=\"https:\/\/clinicaltrials.gov\/ct2\/show\/NCT03349801\">NCT03349801<\/jats:ext-link>. Registered on 22 November 2017.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s12874-021-01243-8","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,17]],"date-time":"2021-03-17T12:03:06Z","timestamp":1615982586000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Challenges, facilitators and barriers to screening study participants in early disease stages-experience from the MACUSTAR study"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"21","author":[{"name":"on behalf of the MACUSTAR consortium","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0174-4066","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jan Henrik","family":"Terheyden","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Charlotte","family":"Behning","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Anna","family":"L\u00fcning","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Ludmila","family":"Wintergerst","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Pier G.","family":"Basile","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Diana","family":"Tavares","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Beatriz A.","family":"Mel\u00edcio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Sergio","family":"Leal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"George","family":"Weissgerber","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Ulrich F. 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These committees included University Hospital Bonn ethics committee (384\/17), Paris Ouest IV (04\/18_2), AIBILI (032\/2017\/AIBILI\/CE), Nova Medical School (13507\/2017), London Queen Square Research Ethics Committee (18\/LO\/0145), Center for Sundhed Glostrup (H-18000126), Comitato Etico Milano (37910\/2018), Ospedale San Raffaele (dated 25\/10\/2018), Radboudumc technology center (2017\u20133954) and LUMC commissie medische ethiek (L18.055\/SH\/sh).","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent for publication"}},{"value":"J. H. Terheyden: Heidelberg Engineering, Optos, Carl Zeiss MedicTec, CenterVue.C. Behning: None.A. L\u00fcning: Heidelberg Engineering, Optos, Carl Zeiss MedicTec, CenterVue.L. Wintergerst: Heidelberg Engineering, Optos, Carl Zeiss MedicTec, CenterVue.P. G. Basile: None.D. Tavares: None.B. A. Mel\u00edcio: None.S. Leal: Employee of Bayer AG.G. Weissgerber: Employee of Novartis Pharma AG.U. F. O. Luhmann: Employee of F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.D. P. Crabb: Allergan, Roche, Santen, Centervue.A. Tufail: None.C. Hoyng: Optos, Bayer.M. Berger: None.M. Schmid: Pixum Vision.R. Silva: Allergan, Allimera Sciences, Alcon, Bayer, Novartis, Thea.C. V. Martinho: J. Cunha-Vaz: Alimera Sciences, Allergan, Bayer, Gene Signal, Novartis, Pfizer, Precision Ocular Ltd., Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, Vifor Pharma and Carl Zeiss Meditec, F. G. Holz: Acucela, Allergan, Apellis, Bayer, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bioeq\/Formycon, CenterVue, Ellex, Roche\/Genentech, Geuder, Grayburg Vision, Heidelberg Engineering, Kanghong, LinBioscience, NightStarX, Novartis, Optos, Pixium, Vision, Oxurion, Stealth BioTherapeutics, Zeiss.R. P. Finger: Novartis, Bayer, Allergan, Alimera, Roche\/Genentech, Santhera, Opthea, Inositec, Ellex, CentreVue, Zeiss, Heidelberg Engineering.","order":4,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"54"}}