Willingness and Motivation of Egyptian Patients with diabetic retinopathy to Participate in Clinical Trials

Purpose: is to identify the motivational factors and barriers to clinical trial recruitment of the Egyptian DR patients. Patients and methods: Patients with DM either type I or II came to our outpatient clinic were subjected to fundus examination. Patients with any degree of diabetic retinopathy were included. A questionnaire was distributed to them. It included the sociodemographic, clinical characteristics and questions to identify the motivational factors or barriers to participate in a trial. We divided them according to their tendency for recruitment, the first group that accepts the participation; we asked them about the most motivational factors. The second group that refused the participation, we asked them about their potential barriers. Results Among the 206 recruited patients (145/206) (70.4%), accepted to participate while the remaining (61/206) (29.6%) refused to. Fear from blindness was the commonest motivational factor (93.1%) and the risk of side effects was the commonest barrier (100%). Acceptance to participate was higher among those with positive family history (P = 0.01). Refusal to participate was higher in mild NPDR (P < 0.001). Patients with PDR and macular edema accepted to participate (P < 0.001). High education was significantly associated with acceptance compared to those who refuse (81.1% versus 18.9% respectively) (P = 0.004). Ocular history of previous intervention significantly associated with accepting to paricipate (P = 0.001). Conclusion Acceptance was unpredictably high. The results of this questionnaire should encourage researchers to conduct more clinical trials.