Recruitment

BACKGROUND: Relatively few exercise randomized clinical trials (RCTs) among stroke survivors have reported the effectiveness of recruitment and retention strategies, despite its central importance to study integrity.

OBJECTIVE: Our objective is to examine recruitment and retention strategies used among a group of older community-dwelling stroke survivors for an exercise RCT.

The selection of methods that purposefully reflect the norms of the target population increases the likelihood of effective recruitment, data collection, and retention. In the case of research among college students, researchers' appreciation of college student norms might be skewed by unappreciated generational and developmental differences. Our purpose in this article is to illustrate how attention to the generational and developmental characteristics of college students enhanced the methods of the Risk, Religiosity, and Emerging Adulthood study.

BACKGROUND: To counter pervasive disparities in healthcare and guide public health prevention programs, culturally sensitive recruitment and retention strategies for Chinese immigrants participating in health-related research studies are needed. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to develop and implement recruitment and retention strategies with Chinese immigrants in a Tai Chi exercise study. METHODS: After substantial project planning and incorporating community-based research principles, a multidimensional approach was used to ensure minimal loss to follow-up.

Successful outcomes for studies on health disparities depend on recruitment of research participants. Obtaining willing participants, protecting their rights, and acknowledging their contribution to research is as important as seeking answers to the study phenomena. Recruiting research participants can be an arduous process for investigators. Although literature has published participant recruitment methods, investigators sometimes underestimate the time and intensity required to attract eligible participants into research studies.