Motivations for (non)participation in population-based health studies among the elderly - comparison of participants and nonparticipants of a prospective study on influenza vaccination

Manas K Akmatov, Leonhard Jentsch, Peggy Riese, Marcus May, Malik W Ahmed, Damaris Werner, Anja Rösel, Jana Prokein, Inga Bernemann, Norman Klopp, Blair Prochnow, Thomas Illig, Christoph Schindler, Carlos A Guzman, Frank Pessler, Manas K Akmatov, Leonhard Jentsch, Peggy Riese, Marcus May, Malik W Ahmed, Damaris Werner, Anja Rösel, Jana Prokein, Inga Bernemann, Norman Klopp, Blair Prochnow, Thomas Illig, Christoph Schindler, Carlos A Guzman, Frank Pessler

Abstract

Background: Participation in epidemiological studies has strongly declined in recent years. We examined the reasons for (non)participation in population-based health studies among participants and nonparticipants of a prospective study on influenza vaccination among the elderly.

Methods: Males and females between 65 and 80 years of age (N = 5582) were randomly selected from the residents' registration office in Hannover, Germany, and were invited to participate in a study featuring vaccination with a seasonal adjuvanted influenza vaccine (Fluad™, Novartis) including five follow-up visits (day 0, 1/3, 7, 21, 70 with respect to vaccination). A 24-item nonresponder questionnaire, including 10 items on reasons for participating in a hypothetical health study, was mailed to 1500 randomly selected nonparticipants. The same 10 items were included in the end-of-study questionnaire administered to the participants in the vaccination study (n = 200). Logistic regression analysis with backward elimination was used to identify the reasons most strongly associated with nonparticipation.

Results: Five hundred thirty-one (35%) nonparticipants and 200 participants (100%) returned the respective questionnaires. Nonparticipation was associated with a lower interest in obtaining personal health information (OR = 3.32) and a preference for less invasive (OR = 3.01) and less time-demanding (OR = 2.19) studies. Responses to other items, e.g. regarding altruistic motives, monetary compensation, general interest of the study, or study approval through ethics committee and data security authority, did not differ between participants and nonparticipants.

Conclusions: Participation rates in health studies among elderly individuals could potentially be improved by reducing interventions and time demand, for instance by implementing methods of self-sampling and remote data collection.

Trial registration: No. 1100359 (ClinicalTrials.gov, date of registration: 09.02.2015).

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02362919.

Keywords: Elderly; Germany; Motivations; Nonparticipants; Participation; Population-based study; Reasons.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Reasons for participating in health research among participants and nonparticipants of the influenza vaccination study. * Chi-square test
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Venn diagrams of the relationships across the three reasons mostly associated with (non)participation in a hypothetical health study among participants (a) and nonparticipants (b) of the influenza vaccination study. The data are based on the number of individuals who responded with “very important” or “important” to the questions on time demand and medical interventions, and “not important” or “not at all important” to the question on receiving health information (see Fig. 1, Table 2). Abbreviations: imp. = important; unimp. = unimportant

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Source: PubMed

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