Trial recruitment:
Successfully recruiting participants for clinical trials is a challenge that crosses all medical disciplines, but is
particularly difficult in the field of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research. The nature of the disease, the need
to recruit a caregiver in addition tothe person with AD, the changing nature of clinical prescribing practices,
and a climate of misunderstanding and misperceptions about AD all contribute to these recruitment
challenges.
A growing body of published literature is focusing on consumer attitudes toward participation in clinical
trials and benefits and barriers perceived by participants and thepublic. Articles report on the relative
effectiveness of various recruitment tactics and methods. The value of the AD recruitment experiences
reported in the published literature could be increased by the use of a framework for systematically planning
and evaluating recruitment methods and approaches.Social marketing is one such framework.
It is a discipline introduced in the 1970s that seeks to apply marketing principles and expertise to
address social and health problems.Social marketing is defined as a process for influencing human
