![]() ![]() Few studies focussed on minority or under-served populations, and most studies were observational. The key health areas investigated were health promotion, cancers, circulatory system diseases and mental health. The number of published studies on digital tools has doubled in the past decade, but most studies evaluated digital tools for recruitment rather than retention. We identified 9163 potentially relevant references, of which 104 articles reporting 105 comparative studies were included in the systematic map. Included studies were coded by one reviewer with 20% checked by a second reviewer, using pre-defined keywords to describe characteristics of the studies, populations and digital tools evaluated. Two reviewers independently screened references against protocol-specified eligibility criteria. ![]() ![]() We searched Medline, Embase, other databases, the Internet, and relevant web sites in July 2018 to identify comparative studies of digital tools for recruiting and/or retaining participants in health RCTs. We aimed to systematically map the characteristics of digital recruitment and retention tools for RCTs, and the features of the comparative studies that have evaluated the effectiveness of these tools during the past 10 years. Digital tools, such as social media, data mining, email or text-messaging, could improve recruitment or retention, but an overview of this research area is lacking. Recruiting and retaining participants in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) is challenging. ![]()
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