1843-LB: Prioritizing Representativeness—Recruiting before “Lost to Follow-up” Youth Living with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) for a Virtual Family-Based Transition Readiness Intervention

Introduction & Objective: Transition-aged youth with T1D represent a vulnerable population. Recruiting representative samples of these youth for psychosocial interventions is challenging and requires strategic efforts. Behavioral Family Systems Therapy for Diabetes Transition (BFST-DT) is an adapted, virtual, family-based intervention for improving transition readiness, and is currently being evaluated through a pilot intervention trial. The objective of this study is to (1) evaluate the representativeness of the recruited sample, and (2) compare recruitment strategies between those who consented and declined.

Methods: Thirty adolescents (16-18 years) with T1D and their parent(s) were recruited from a large urban hospital. Differences in demographic and health-related variables were assessed between the patient population and those who enrolled, declined, or were unresponsive.

Results: There were no differences between those enrolled, were unresponsive, and the patient population in age, gender, race, ethnicity, zip code-based income, A1c, CGM use, insulin delivery method, or comorbidities. Patients who declined were more likely to live in the city (versus suburban/rural areas) [X² (1, N=41) = 5.8, p=.02]. Those who enrolled did so via phone (57.1%), email (23.8%), mailings (9.5%), and patient portal (4.8%). Those who declined did so via phone (85.4%), email (9.8%), and patient portal (4.9%), commonly citing no interest (41.5%) and lack of time (19.5%).

Conclusion: Recruitment strategies were effective in recruiting a representative sample of transition-aged youth with T1D. Findings have implications for recruiting and retaining populations that are challenging to engage in intervention research. Future research should prioritize the stratification of historically underrepresented groups during recruitment.