Recruitment and Retention of Rural-Dwelling Young Adults into a Digital Healthy Eating Intervention: Lessons Learned from a Randomized Controlled Trial of the Veg4Me Study.
Background/objectives: The study aimed to identify the key methodological challenges and solutions related to recruitment and retention of rural-dwelling young adults into a randomized controlled trial that tests the feasibility of a digital healthy eating intervention (Veg4Me). Methods: Digital reg...
| Publicado en: | Nutrients Vol. 18; no. 11; pp. 1646 - 1660 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
MDPI
Jun2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=194587341&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 194587341 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 20726643 B0TT jtl: Nutrients issn: 20726643 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2026 vid: 18 iid: 11 pid: 97109 pub: MDPI artinfo: ui: 194587341 194587341 194587341 10.3390/nu18111646 194587341 ppf: 1646 ppct: 14 formats: tig: atl: Recruitment and Retention of Rural-Dwelling Young Adults into a Digital Healthy Eating Intervention: Lessons Learned from a Randomized Controlled Trial of the Veg4Me Study. aug: au: Livingstone, Katherine M. Partridge, Stephanie R. Rawstorn, Jonathan C. Dullaghan, Kathleen M. Zhang, Yuxin Godrich, Stephanie L. McNaughton, Sarah A. Hendrie, Gilly A. Blekkenhorst, Lauren C. Maddison, Ralph Mathers, John C. Alston, Laura affil: Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC 3220, Australia sug: subj: Randomized Controlled Trials Research Methodology Research Subject Recruitment Research Subject Retention Rural Population In Adolescence Rural Population In Adulthood Internet-Based Intervention Health Behavior Eating Behavior Human Victoria Funding Source Adolescence Adult Descriptive Statistics After Care Data Analysis Software Male Female Adolescent: 13-18 years Adult: 19-44 years Male Female ab: Background/objectives: The study aimed to identify the key methodological challenges and solutions related to recruitment and retention of rural-dwelling young adults into a randomized controlled trial that tests the feasibility of a digital healthy eating intervention (Veg4Me). Methods: Digital registration for a 12-week study was set up as a one-step process without researcher involvement. Participant registrations and recruitment rates were monitored daily using predetermined online preventative measures to identify fraudulent responses and to amend the digital registration process where necessary. Retention rates were monitored daily to identify any necessary amendments to the follow-up protocol. Results: During data collection, n = 279 fraudulent responses were identified from n = 536 total responses (52%). One month into recruitment, amendments were made to the registration process to reduce fraudulent responses. To address bot attacks, Qualtrics passwords and a two-factor authentication process were added to the Veg4Me landing page. Targeted recruitment strategies, such as unpaid social media posts, corresponded to peaks in recruitment. In the final recruitment month, a question was embedded within follow-up correspondence to encourage completion of the post-intervention survey. This resulted in an additional n = 8 (7%) participants completing the intervention. Conclusions: Empirical observations made in this study suggest that digital recruitment protocols without direct researcher involvement should consider multiple in-built strategies for identifying and preventing fraudulent responses. This includes a two-factor authentication process and minimizing the over-promotion of financial incentives in recruitment strategies. Recruitment strategies should consider the use of social media posts in local community groups, while the use of reminders and notifications could support retention. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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