Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #110027

Melissa A. Clark, PhD¹, Charles Neighbors, Ph D², Melanie R. Wasserman, PhD¹, Gene Armstrong, BA¹, and Melody Drnach, BA¹. (1) Center for Gerontology & Health Care Research, Brown University, Box G-B2, Providence, RI 02912, (401) 863-3170, melissa_clark@brown.edu, (2) Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, The Miriam Hospital and Brown University, Coro Building, Suite 500, One Hoppin Street, Providence, RI 02903

There have been limited methodological studies about the strategies and costs associated with recruiting hard-to-reach populations such as unmarried middle-aged and older women. The goal of the Cancer Screening Project for Women was to research the experiences of unmarried women 40-75 years. We aimed to recruit equal numbers of women who partner with men (WPM) and who partner with women or with women and men (WPW). Targeted and respondent-driven sampling outreach methods were used to recruit potential participants in each stratum. Comparable recruitment strategies were used for WPW and WPM. We maintained detailed documentation of the communication strategies and costs associated with each outreach method. After 19 months of recruitment, 683 women were contacted for participation; 540 were enrolled (160 WPW, 357 WPM; 23 no partner preference). Print media was the most efficient method of recruitment for WPW and WPM (staff hours per participant = 0.95 and 1.53 respectively). Community events, health fairs, and mailings/flyers were not efficient for recruiting WPW. The overall outreach cost per participant contacted was $115. After obtaining contact information, research staff spent 25 minutes on average screening participants for eligibility and enrolling them into the study. Total costs per participant differed by partner preference. Total costs per WPM enrolled were $280 (outreach = $218 and enrollment = $62). Total costs per WPW enrolled were $624 (outreach = $487 and enrollment = $137). This information about the efficiency of recruitment strategies can be useful for planning future research projects that include middle-aged and older women.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe sampling non-probability based strategies for sampling hard-to-reach populations.
• Describe communication strategies used to recruited unmarried middle-aged and older women into research studies.
• List the most cost-effective strategies to recruit women who partner with women into research studies.
• Discuss the importance of including questions about sexual orientation in studies of women’s health.

Keywords: Methodology, Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.