Recruitment of Patients Through Invitation Letters

It is found that patients suffering from Schizophrenia have a positive attitude concerning participation in a research project but this doesn't always lead to recruitment. This might be due to schizophrenia being a disease causing self-disturbances in communication and contact to the surrounding World. It may lead to vulnerability in decision-making an a lower decision making capacity. Language disability is one of the most notable cognitive deficits in patients suffering from Schizophrenia and can be devided in to main components of usage and comprehension. Patients experience poorer listening comprehension and reading comprehension with no correlation to either age or education level and studies have shown that patients with schizophrenia have low literacy.

Therefore the aim of this study is to examine whether a rewritten version of an invitation Letter, taking in consideration patients low literacy and therefore written in simple sentences and with a sequential structure of information will make more patients take contact to a project nurse compared to patients receiving the original invitation Letter. The study design is a randomized controlled trial testing the old letter against the new letter.

Inclusion criteria

• >18 years
• Patients with a diagnosis within the spectre of Schizophrenia (F-20 to F-25) for at least ten years
• At the time of recruitment, a diagnosis of either F-20 or F-25 ( all diagnoses from ICD-10)
• Recidency in the Northern part of Jutland
• In treatment by an outpatient team
• Low frequency of contact with a clinician, once a month at the most

Exclusion criteria

• No exclusion criteria for receiving an invitation Letter