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BioMed Central, BMC Medical Research Methodology, 1(15)

DOI: 10.1186/s12874-015-0063-5

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Do personalised e-mail invitations increase the response rates of breast cancer survivors invited to participate in a web-based behaviour change intervention? A quasi-randomised 2-arm controlled trial

Journal article published in 2015 by Camille E. Short, Amanda L. Rebar ORCID, Corneel Vandelanotte ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Abstract Background Previous research has shown that the personalisation of study invitations improves response rates in survey-based research. To examine if this finding extends to experimental studies, we examined the impact of personalised study invitation e-mails on the response rates of potentially eligible breast cancer survivors for participation in a 6 month randomised controlled trial testing the efficacy of a physical activity intervention. Methods Potential participants ( n  = 344) were sent either a personalised email or a generic email. Results Those sent the personalised email were 1.5 times (95 % CI = 1.18–1.93) more likely to respond than those sent the generic email. Conclusion These findings suggest that personalisation may be a useful and potentially powerful tool that can be utilised when recruiting participants into experimental studies in order to boost response rates.