Loades, Maria E, Smith, Lucie, Higson-Sweeney, Nina et al. · BMC medical research methodology · 2019 · DOI
This study looked at why it's hard to recruit young people with ME/CFS into research studies about mental health. Researchers interviewed doctors and nurses at a specialist ME/CFS clinic to understand what makes it difficult for them to invite patients to join studies. They found that busy schedules, emotional patient appointments, and competing studies all made recruitment harder.
Understanding recruitment barriers is critical for ME/CFS research, as failed or biased recruitment compromises study validity and our ability to understand disease mechanisms and comorbidities. This study provides practical insights from clinical staff about how to design better studies that young people with ME/CFS are more likely to participate in, potentially improving future research quality.
This study does not prove that implementing the gatekeepers' recommendations will successfully improve recruitment, nor does it establish whether perceived barriers actually prevent eligible patients from consenting. The findings from one specialist centre may not generalise to other settings or research contexts. This is a qualitative study of staff perceptions, not a measurement of actual patient recruitment outcomes.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Loades, Maria E, Smith, Lucie, Higson-Sweeney, Nina, Beasant, Lucy, Stallard, Paul, Kessler, David, et al. (2019). Obstacles to recruitment in paediatric studies focusing on mental health in a physical health context: the experiences of clinical gatekeepers in an observational cohort study.. BMC medical research methodology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-019-0730-z
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-loades-2019-obstacles-recruitment,
author = {Loades, Maria E and Smith, Lucie and Higson-Sweeney, Nina and Beasant, Lucy and Stallard, Paul and Kessler, David and Crawley, Esther},
title = {Obstacles to recruitment in paediatric studies focusing on mental health in a physical health context: the experiences of clinical gatekeepers in an observational cohort study.},
journal = {BMC medical research methodology},
year = {2019},
doi = {10.1186/s12874-019-0730-z},
note = {PubMed: 31029100},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/loades-2019-obstacles-recruitment},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/loades-2019-obstacles-recruitment
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