Recruiting ‘hard to reach’ parents for health promotion research: experiences from a qualitative study

Abstract

Objective Marginalised populations are less likely to take part in health research, and are sometimes considered ‘easy to ignore’. We aimed to describe our approach and results of recruiting parents who experience disadvantage, for focus groups exploring infant feeding on the island of Ireland. Upon receiving ethical approval, we implemented recruitment strategies that included building rapport with community organisations through existing networks, targeting specific organisations with information about our aims, and utilising social media groups for parents. Results We approached 74 organisations of which 17 helped with recruitment. We recruited 86 parents/carers (one male) for 19 focus groups (15 urban/4 rural). Seventy two percent met at the eligibility criteria. Most participants were recruited through organisations (91%), and the remainder on social media (9%). Recruitment barriers included multiple steps, research fatigue, or uncertainty around expectations. Factors such as building rapport, simplifying the recruitment process and being flexible with procedures were facilitators. Despite comprehensive, multi-pronged approaches, the most marginalised parents may not have been reached. Further alternative recruitment strategies are required for recruiting fathers, rural populations, or those without the capacity or opportunity to engage with local services.

Intentional and actional components of engaged participation in public health research studies: qualitative synthesis of a recruitment and retention process into the theory-informed INTACT-RS framework

“…This provides exemplary information about motivational and actional processes, which are decisive for committed research participation from the perspective of participants. While parents and HCPs may not be perceived as “hard to reach” groups per se, we expected recruitment to be challenging [ 9 , 23 , 26 ] and aimed to understand this process.…”

“…[9,25,53]), it may be legitimate to integrate these and related aspects (see Table 2) into study planning, rather than (only) focusing on 'how' , with what means to approach potential participants (e.g. [18,26]). Previous work by Nov et al [54] highlights how (initial) motivations, interest, etc.…”

“…Others again have directly assessed target groups' perspectives on recruitment, mainly trialists and principal investigators [15], doctors and other healthcare professionals (HCPs) [16][17][18][19], and lay people [20][21][22]. Further studies have analysed recruitment strategies qualitatively and quantitatively, looking at recruitment data retrospectively [23] and statistically [24,25], reflecting on self-experienced recruitment barriers [26], and describing the use of modified recruitment processes [27].…”

Understanding the Barriers Fathers Face to Seeking Help for Paternal Perinatal Depression: Comparing Fathers to Men Outside the Perinatal Period

“…However, fathers with PPD are challenging to recruit to research of this kind for reasons including high self-stigma and a lack of awareness. Future researchers could overcome barriers to research participation by offering paid incentives or simplifying recruitment processes [42]. Alternatively, as some small effect sizes may not be meaningful clinically, future research may instead choose to utilise qualitative methodologies to gain a detailed, clinically useful understanding of barriers to help-seeking, as this would not require such a large sample.…”