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Use of Participant Compensation in U.S. Clinical Research Studies

Publication Date
Authors
Allison Kolbe

Providing compensation to clinical research participants to offset the costs associated with participation is often suggested as a way to improve recruitment and retention. However, relatively little is known about the landscape of compensation in clinical research. This study implemented a text mining approach to identify compensation across 7,648 U.S.-based clinical research studies, using informed consent files available in ClinicalTrials.gov. Studies in the sample had registered start dates between 1994-2025, with 88.4% starting in 2015 or later. Overall, the text mining approach identified 4,548 studies (59.5%) as offering compensation to participants.  The percentage of studies offering compensation varied between intervention types (10.2%-84.2%), trial phases (34.8%-63.3%), and health conditions being studied (22%-90.6%). These results highlight the need for additional research into the use of compensation in clinical research studies, particularly in the context of its effectiveness to improve patient recruitment and retention.

*This content is in the process of Section 508 review. If you need immediate assistance accessing this content, please submit a request to Allison Kolbe, Allison.Kolbe@hhs.gov. Content will be updated pending the outcome of the Section 508 review.

Related Products:

https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/participate-clinical-trials

https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/financial-stress-clinical-trial

https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/clinical-trial-costs-patients