Determining the Best Form of Communication to Recruit New Study Participants

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease. Pancreatic beta cells are destroyed and insulin which regulates the body's glucose metabolism are dangerously low. There are five autoantibodies associated with type one diabetes. A person with two or more will develop T1D at some point in their lifetime because The autoantibodies have already started attacking the pancreatic beta cells that create insulin. The Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet Pathway to Prevention ( www.trialnet.org ) is an international research study. It allows family members of persons with T1D to get their blood tested for autoantibodies associated with T1D. If someone has a relative with T1D, they are 15 times more likely to develop the disease compared to the general population. Pathway to Prevention is risk screening that will detect the early stages of T1D if antibodies are detected. The goal of this project is to find which method of contact engages the most new participants for Pathway to Prevention. I am contacting families of children recently diagnosed with T1D through phone calls, emails, letters or postcards and to compare the number of consented participants based on which contact method was used. I plan to determine which contact method is the most effective to recruit new participants.

Supervisor: Dr. Linda DiMeglio and Maria Spall 
Department: Pediatrics at Riley Hospital for Children, Division of Endocrinology and Diabetology