224271 Innovative Recruitment and Retention Strategies in a Community Based Intervention for the Bangladeshi Population: Challenges and Lessons Learned

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Krittika Ghosh, MSc , Center for the Study of Asian American Health, NYU Institute of Community Health and Research, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY
Nadia Islam, PhD , Center for the Study of Asian American Health, NYU Institute of Community Health and Research, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY
Mamnunul Haq , Center for the Study of Asian American Health, NYU Institute of Community Health and Research, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY
Gulnahar Alam , Center for the Study of Asian American Health, NYU Institute of Community Health and Research, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY
Chau Trinh-Shevrin, DrPH , Institute of Community Health and Research, NYU Center for Study of Asian American Health, New York, NY
Mariano Rey, MD , Center for the Study of Asian American Health, NYU Institute of Community Health and Research, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY
The DREAM Project is the first large scale Community Health Worker (CHW) research project promoting diabetes management in the U.S. Bangladeshi community. The goal of the project is to improve knowledge among Bangladeshi individuals with diabetes and provide diabetes management tools through group and one-on-one educational sessions by trained (CHWs). This presentation will review innovative strategies employed in recruiting and retaining participants in the eight month DREAM Pilot intervention.

Building upon their strong community organizing background, DREAM CHWs used outreach skills to recruit participants. Various recruitment venues were targeted, including places of worship(such as mosques and temples during religious events), street corners heavily populated Bangladeshi neighborhoods, cultural and community events, apartment buildings with a large number of Bangladeshi residents, and at a local hospital with large numbers of Bangladeshi patients. Recruitment was also conducted through strategically placed advertisements in the leading Bengali newspapers in the U.S. Through this intensive recruitment, DREAM was able to recruit 74 eligible participants in a span of three months.

In order to minimize attrition, the project implemented multiple retention strategies. Theses included hosting multiple make-up sessions at times and venues that are of convenience to participants including their homes and community centers, and offering incentives such as raffles and other prizes to motivate participants to attend the sessions. In addition, DREAM has created creative hand-outs such as a calendar for participants to record their upcoming sessions and doctors visits. These strategies have demonstrated an improvement in retention rates across the first set of sessions.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Chronic disease management and prevention
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe some of the innovative strategies used by DREAM Project to recruit participants into the study. 2. List the creative strategies used by DREAM Project to retain participants into the study. 3. Discuss challenges faced by CHWS in recruiting and retaining participants

Keywords: Diabetes, Community Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to present because I am the Project Coordinator of the DREAM Project: a CHW based intervention on diabetes management in the Bangladeshi immigrant community in New York City.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.