Table 4.

Overall consent, recruitment and retention rates and association with Journal

	Journal	n	Median	IQR	Range	P value
Consent rate (percentage of eligible participants consented and randomised)	All	309	72%	50%–88%	4%–100%
	HTA	230	72%	50%–88%	4%–100%	0.225*
	EME	36	74%	52%–93%	11%–100%
	PGfAR	30	65%	48%–84%	19%–100%
	HS&DR	7	81%	60%–97%	35%–100%
	PHR	6	57%	40%–68%	35%–76%
Recruitment rate (participants recruited per centre per month)	All	365	0.95	0.42–2.60	0.01–57.75
	HTA	289	0.85	0.39–2.49	0.01–57.75	0.010*
	EME	39	1.18	0.45–2.46	0.15–18.61
	PGfAR	25	1.18	0.53–2.80	0.07–24.03
	HS&DR	6	1.88	1.71–10.82	1.69–18.87
	PHR	6	7.62	1.79–17.06	1.69–20.57
Retention rate (percentage of randomised participants retained and assessed in primary outcome)	All	388	88%	80%–97%	0%–100%
	HTA	303	89%	80%–97%	0%–100%	0.118*
	EME	39	89%	80%–97%	47%–100%
	PGfAR	31	84%	78%–91%	43%–100%
	HS&DR	9	82%	73%–89%	68%–99%
	PHR	6	85%	78%–90%	74%–92%

*P values are reported from a Kruskal-Wallis test.

EME, efficacy and mechanism evaluation; HS&DR, Health Services and Delivery Research; HTA, Health Technology Assessment; PGfAR, Programme Grants for Applied Research; PHR, Public Health Research.