Le French Gut: Randomized-Controlled Trial to Evaluate Reminder Strategies (Emails and Text Messages) to Increase Participation in the Le French Gut E-cohort

The "Le French Gut" project (NCT05758961) is an ongoing online research cohort aiming to collect faecal samples and associated nutritional and clinical data to better understand the observed heterogeneity between gut microbiome of healthy subjects, its connections with the diet and lifestyle, but also changes in gut microbiota associated with diseases (diabetes, obesity, allergies, cancer, Parkinson, Alzheimer…). Le French Gut is initiated by MetaGenoPolis-INRAE, supported by INRAE with Prof. R. Benamouzig, (AP-HP) as principal investigator of the project.

When participants first register to participate in the cohort, they must complete a short "About You" ("A propos de vous") questionnaire before they can receive any study kits and be considered as active participants in the research. In October 2024, almost half of the ~43,000 individuals who have created an account never finish this first questionnaire needed to validate their participation in the cohort.

Purpose of the study This study will test which type of reminder works best for encouraging those inactive volunteers to return to the platform and complete the missing questionnaire.

How the study will be done

All eligible volunteers (i.e. people who registered on the online platform and provided a valid e mail address or mobile number but have not yet finished completing the "A propos de vous" questionnaire) will be randomly assigned to one of four groups: