Recruitment to a physical activity intervention study in women at increased risk of breast cancer

We conducted an analysis of recruitment techniques used for a prospective, randomized pilot study of physical activity in women at risk of breast cancer. We evaluated differences in proportion of eligible patients, enrolled patients, and successful patients identified by each individual recruitment method. The Fisher-Freeman-Halton test (an extension of Fisher's exact test from 2 × 2 tables to general row by column tables) was used to compare the success of different recruitment strategies.We received 352 inquiries from women interested in participating, of whom 171 (54%) were eligible. Ninety-nine women completed a baseline activity evaluation, and 58 (34% of eligible; 16% of total inquiries) were randomized. Recruitment methods fell into three broad categories: media techniques, direct contact with potential participants, and contacts with health care providers. Recruitment strategies differed significantly in their ability to identify eligible women (p = 0.01), and women who subsequently enrolled in the study (p = 0.02).Recruitment techniques had varying success. Our data illustrate the challenges in recruiting to behavior modification studies, and provide useful information for tailoring future recruitment efforts for lifestyle intervention trials.CDR0000393790, NCI-04-C-0276, NCI-NAVY-B05-001Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women in the United States and the second most common cause of cancer mortality [1]. Although tamoxifen and raloxifene have both been shown to decrease breast cancer incidence by approximately 50% [2,3], chemoprevention is not widely accepted by high risk women, mostly due to fear of side effects [4,5]. Consequently, effective and acceptable prevention strategies can have enormous public health implications. Epidemiologic studies suggest that a lifestyle that includes some degree of physical activity is protective against breast cancer. While the amount of activity needed to impart a benefit is unknown, several data from sev