Effectiveness of online education for recruitment to an Alzheimer's disease prevention clinical trial.

Introduction: Low awareness of Alzheimer's disease (AD) clinical trials is a recruitment barrier. To assess whether online education may affect screening rates for AD prevention clinical trials, we conducted an initial prospective cohort study (n = 10,450) and subsequent randomized study (n = 351) using an online digital tool: AlzU.org.

Methods: A total of 10,450 participants were enrolled in an initial cohort study and asked to complete a six-lesson course on AlzU.org, as well as a baseline and 6-month follow-up questionnaire. Participants were stratified into three groups based on lesson completion at 6 months: group 1 (zero to one lesson completed), group 2 (two to four lessons), and group 3 (five or more lessons). For the subsequent randomized-controlled trial (RCT), 351 new participants were enrolled in a six-lesson course (n = 180) versus a time-neutral control (n = 171). Screening and enrollment in the Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic AD (A4) clinical trial were reported via the 6-month questionnaire and are the primary outcomes.

Results: 3.9% of group 1, 5% of group 2, and 8.4% of group 3 screened for the A4 trial. Significant differences were found among the groups ( < 0.001). Post hoc analyses showed differences in A4 screening rates between groups 1 and 3 ( < 0.001) and groups 2 and 3 ( = 0.0194). There were no differences in enrollment among the three groups. 2.78% of the intervention group screened for A4 compared to 0% of controls ( = 0.0611).

Discussion: Online education via the AlzU.org digital tool may serve as an effective strategy to supplement clinical trial recruitment.