Recruiting Minority Men Who Have Sex With Men for HIV Research: Results From a 4-City Campaign

Abstract

We describe the efforts of a 4-city campaign to recruit Black and Hispanic men who have sex with men into an established HIV epidemiological study. The campaign used community organizing principles and a social marketing model that focused on personnel, location, product, costs and benefits, and promotion. The campaign was developed at the community, group, and individual levels to both increase trust and reduce barriers.The proportion of Hispanic men recruited during the 2002-2003 campaign doubled compared with the 1987 campaign, and the proportion and number of White men decreased by 20%. The proportion of Black men decreased because of the large increase in Hispanic men, although the number of Black men increased by 56%. Successful recruitment included training recruitment specialists, involving knowledgeable minority community members during planning, and having an accessible site with convenient hours.

Tips for research recruitment: The views of sexual minority youth

“…Sherriff et al, 2011;Silvestre et al, 2006). In addition to the need for trust, participants in the current study and other researchers have highlighted the need to address certain factors to encourage minority group participation, specifically: address the practical issues pertaining to transportation and the difficulties many participants face getting to certain locations (Fouad et al, 2004;Nápoles-Springer et al, 2000;Woods et al, 2002); attend to the need for adequate incentives/vouchers as an acknowledgement of the participant's input, and make sure that participants do not need to cover 'out of pocket costs' (Nápoles-Springer et al, 2000;Silvestre et al, 2006); ensure that the research is seen as a priority by others (Silvestre et al, 2006), or it is seen as an important area to study by the participants (Nápoles-Springer et al, 2000); make sure that the research procedures are not burdensome and do not 'clash' with participants' other commitments (Woods et al, 2002); be mindful of the stigma associated with being 'non-heterosexual' (Silvestre et al, 2006;Wheeler, 2003), especially for sexual minority youth; and, always treat participants with maximal respect (Silvestre et al, 2006).…”

“…Lee, 2002;Lucassen et al, 2013;Sherriff et al, 2011). Past research focused on overcoming the barriers associated with recruiting participants from minority populations focuses primarily on sexual minority adults or ethnic minority individuals (McCormack, 2014;Silvestre et al, 2006), with this body of literature indicating that minority communities have low levels of trust in researchers (Fouad et al, 2004;Nápoles-Springer et al, 2000;Silvestre et al, 2006). This paper reports on the views of a group of sexual minority youth who had previously taken part in a study (the Rainbow SPARX project) about what had enabled and encouraged their participation in research.…”

Vitamin D Deficiency and Metabolism in HIV-Infected and HIV-Uninfected Men in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study

“…HAART use was defined using the DHHS/Kaiser Panel guidelines. 32 As participants enrolled in the MACS after 2001 were demographically and socioeconomically different from those enrolled before 2001, 33 enrollment after 2001 was used as a covariate to further examine the effect of unmeasured socioeconomic factors on vitamin D status.…”

Understanding the Complexity of Alcohol-Related Intimate Partner Violence in the Lives of Hispanic Men Who Have Sex with Men: Methodological Issues and Considerations

“…Researchers interested in collecting data on high-risk behaviors have often noted the specific methodological difficulties associated with locating and recruiting members of various ''hard-to-reach'' or ''hidden populations'' [1,3,40,43,50]. In particular, researchers interested in illicit gang violence, drug use and behaviors related to the transmission of HIV have outlined the challenges associated with this kind of research.…”