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Article ID	#26411
Title	The effect of a personalized newsletter to physical therapists on patient recruitment: A cluster randomized trial in primary physiotherapy care
URL	https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32828570/
Journal	J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2020 Jun;43(5):476-482
Author(s)	Thoomes-de Graaf M Wiersma RE Karel Y Duijn E Spek B Rizopoulos D Scholten-Peeters GGM Verhagen AP
Subject(s)	Affiliation / Avans University of Applied Sciences. Research Group Diagnostics Affiliation / Erasmus University Medical Center. Department of Biostatistics Affiliation / Erasmus University Medical Center. Department of General Practice Affiliation / University of Amsterdam. Amsterdam University Medical Centers. Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Affiliation / University of Technology Sydney. Graduate School of Health. Department of Physiotherapy Affiliation / Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Department of Human Movement Sciences Affiliation(G) / Australia / New South Wales / Sydney Affiliation(G) / Netherlands / Amsterdam Affiliation(G) / Netherlands / Brabant / Breda Affiliation(G) / Netherlands / Rotterdam Marketing of Health Services Patient Education as Topic / methods Patient Selection Physical Therapists Physical Therapy Specialty Random Allocation
Peer Review	Yes
Publication Type	Randomized Controlled Trial
Abstract/Notes	Objective: To assess the effect of a personalized newsletter compared with a standard newsletter on patient recruitment in physiotherapy research. Methods: We performed a cluster-randomized trial including 120 physiotherapists who recruited patients for a prospective cohort and were randomly assigned to either receiving personalized feedback in a newsletter (intervention group) or a standard newsletter (control group). We calculated the difference in the number of patients included in the study corrected for inclusion time between both groups. Results: The physiotherapists in the control group (n = 59) included 110 patients (35.4% of the total number of patients included) compared with an inclusion of 200 patients (64.6% of the total number of patients included) by the physiotherapists in the intervention group (n = 61), a difference of 90 patients in favor of the intervention group. However, when corrected for inclusion time and a cluster effect, we found no statistically significant difference between both groups. In addition, therapists who did not include a single patient (inactive therapists) were evenly divided between the 2 groups (n = 29 [49%] in the control group; n = 30 [49%] in the intervention group). Conclusions: A personalized newsletter does not significantly increase the number of recruited patients by physiotherapists. However, therapists receiving personalized feedback recruited nearly double the number of patients compared with the ones receiving standard feedback. Author keywords: Patient Recruitment; Primary Care; Physiotherapy; Psychology; Clinical Trials, Randomized Author affiliations: MTdG, YK: Department of General Practice, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Research Group Diagnostics, Avans University of Applied Science, Breda, Netherlands; REW, BS: Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands; ED: Research Group Diagnostics, Avans University of Applied Science, Breda, Netherlands; DR: Department of Biostatistics, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands; GGMSP: Department of Human Movement Sciences, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam Movement Sciences, Amsterdam, Netherlands; APV: Department of General Practice, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Department of Physiotherapy, Graduate School of Health University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia. This abstract is reproduced with the permission of the publisher; full text is available by subscription. Click on the above link and select a publisher from PubMed's LinkOut feature.