Key Highlights

 

Aims and methods:

 

  • “This study aimed to better understand how mHealth studies conducted in the past 5 years have addressed the challenges of participant engagement and retention. We conducted a systematic review of the literature to identify notable factors and strategies used in participant engagement and retention.”
  • “Our methodology was guided by the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement.”
 

Results:

 

  • “Our review found that most (48/62, 77%) studies were at least partially successful in maintaining participant engagement throughout. Many of these successes were because of the support features of the research or app and the lack of barriers to entry.”
  • “Although low barriers to initial entry could allow thousands of participants to be recruited, the same features also functioned as low barriers to exit. Recruiting a large number of participants is certainly beneficial, but that benefit may be substantially reduced if retention is poor. “
  • Qualitative themes included:
    • App affordances
    • Successful recruitment
    • Low barriers to entry
    • Barrier themes
    • Lack of support features
    • Low barriers to exit
    • Technical difficulties
    • Usefulness of app
  • “The empirical outcomes of the binomial regression model revealed that (1) any participant is more likely to not be retained than to be retained, (2) participants who have the same clinical condition targeted by the study are 4.33 times more likely to stay in the study than participants who do not have the same clinical condition targeted by the study, and (3) participants receiving compensation are 10.32 times more likely to stay in the study than participants who do not receive compensation.”
 

Conclusion:

 

  • “We recommend that future mHealth apps consider potential support and barriers to participant engagement. Although the promise of moving health experiences onto the devices that people are currently using is great, many of the same barriers to participant engagement still exist and should be considered before moving research onto smartphone administration exclusively.”

 

Read the full article here.