Table 5. Delphi participants’ ranking of the top 10 recruitment strategies in family-based experimental research.

Rank	Recruitment source	Recruitment strategy	Total1	Top rank2
1	Community	Research team speaking to parents while they are waiting for their children (e.g., while waiting during their child’s swimming lesson)	64	4
2	School	Letter sent from head teacher to parents on behalf of research team	77	1
3	School	Research team attending parent meetings (e.g., orientation meetings)	79	2
4	Employer	Study information emailed to employees from within organisation on behalf of the research team (e.g., from human resources)	86	3
5	Primary care	Letters sent from general practitioner or health care providers on behalf of research team	86	3
6	School	Assembly delivered to parents by research team	96	2
7	Referral	Word-of mouth	97	1
8	Primary care	Letters sent directly to potential participants from research team	98	0
9	Media	Social media posts (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)	106	1
10	Media	Television (e.g., local news story promoting study)	146	0

¹Participants’ rankings were summed to determine an overall rank of the strategy (i.e., lower scores indicated higher ranks).

²Count of number 1 rankings strategy received.