Table 5.
Association between recruitment rate (number of patients/centre/month) and trial characteristics
| Characteristic | n | Median | IQR | p Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Setting | ||||
| Hospital | 82 | 1.22 | 0.58–2.61 | |
| General practice | 20 | 0.52 | 0.23–0.85 | |
| Mixed | 25 | 0.98 | 0.46–3.57 | |
| Community | 16 | 1.62 | 0.38–4 | 0.043*† |
| Other | 8 | 3.62 | 0.53–11.48 | |
| Arms | ||||
| 2 | 101 | 0.98 | 0.44–3.01 | |
| 3 | 30 | 0.89 | 0.39–5.86 | |
| 4 | 13 | 1.04 | 0.76–2.45 | |
| >4 | 7 | 0.61 | 0.39–2.43 | 0.889† |
| Control type | ||||
| Placebo | 30 | 1.29 | 0.54–4.01 | |
| Active | 121 | 0.88 | 0.42–2.6 | 0.427‡ |
| Original target recruitment | ||||
| ≤200 | 14 | 0.49 | 0.21–2.23 | |
| 201–400 | 40 | 1.30 | 0.51–2.26 | |
| 401–600 | 31 | 0.87 | 0.42–2.33 | 0.033§ |
| 601–800 | 15 | 0.87 | 0.39–2.61 | |
| >800 | 50 | 1.34 | 0.58–5.73 | |
| Final target recruitment | ||||
| ≤200 | 17 | 0.87 | 0.59–3.5 | |
| 201–400 | 49 | 1.96 | 0.72–5.68 | |
| 401–600 | 27 | 0.72 | 0.42–1.67 | |
| 601–800 | 13 | 0.41 | 0.07–1.14 | <0.001§ |
| >800 | 45 | 0.89 | 0.39–4.42 | |
| Total recruitment | ||||
| ≤200 | 24 | 0.60 | 0.34–1.72 | |
| 201–400 | 48 | 1.40 | 0.42–4.28 | <0.001§ |
| 401–600 | 28 | 0.84 | 0.39–1.61 | |
| 601–800 | 12 | 1.51 | 0.28–2.17 | |
| >800 | 39 | 1.38 | 0.43–5.48 | |
| Timing of final follow-up | ||||
| <1 month | 9 | 1.77 | 0.39–7.48 | |
| 1–6 months | 41 | 1.11 | 0.73–5.43 | 0.352§ |
| 6–18 months | 63 | 0.62 | 0.31–1.98 | |
| >18 months | 33 | 0.87 | 0.42–3.85 | |
*The category ‘other’ was not included in Kruskal-Wallis test.
†p Values are reported from a Kruskal-Wallis test.
‡p Values are reported from a Wilcoxon rank sum test.
§p Values are reported from a nonparametric test of trend (Cuzick).