The VidaSana Study: Recruitment Strategies for Longitudinal Assessment of Egocentric Hispanic Immigrant Networks

Abstract

We disseminate the recruitment strategies used in the five-year VidaSana study (started in 2017) in the Midwest region of the United States, targeting recently arrived Hispanic immigrants. VidaSana aims to follow immigrants within six months of arrival for 24 months to (1) characterize features of networks (personal and community) that improve or undermine dental health; and (2) further refine methods to quantify the evolution of egocentric networks, using social network methodology. We implemented several strategies to promote and recruit potential participants into the study. We collaborate with agents serving Indiana’s Hispanic communities using three levels of visibility. The broad level includes radio advertisements, TV interviews, newspaper advertisements, and targeted Facebook advertisements. Intermediate level visibility includes posting flyers in schools, employment agencies, immigrant welcome centers, and Hispanic businesses; making announcements at church/temple and school events; tabling at community, church and school events; and a pervasive adaptation of our strategies to the requirements of our partners. Lastly, the individualized level includes direct referrals by partners through word of mouth. From the initial 13 months of recruitment (494 screened contacts and 202 recruited participants), the most successful recruitment strategies appear to be a combination of intermediate- and individual-level strategies; specifically, face-to-face recruitment at school events, direct referrals from our community partners, and tabling at community/school/church events. The current interim findings and future final findings will help guide recruitment and retention strategies for studies focused on immigrants in the current climate of heightened immigration regulations and enforcement.

Recruitment and Retention Strategies Among Racial and Ethnic Minorities in Web-Based Intervention Trials: Retrospective Qualitative Analysis

“…Additional churches from Google searches and word-of-mouth were identified. The word-of-mouth strategy is a well-known method for participant recruitment [27][28][29][30]. In addition, we mobilized a community health worker who had worked with the principal investigator in previous research studies.…”

“…Mistrust has been noted as a major barrier to racial and ethnic minority participation in clinical trials [6]. Other successful approaches used to build trust include social networking through community engagement, such as working with community advisory boards, community health workers, and community leaders or gatekeepers [30,[33][34][35][36][37]. In a community-based cervical cancer prevention study for African immigrant women, Cudjoe et al [36] provided education about the research process and confidentiality to promote trust in research and research teams.…”

“…As COVID-19 is widespread and affects potential participants' lives, researchers should consider web-based methods to approach and retain participants. Without COVID-19, evidence suggests that the combined use of web-based recruitment with in-person strategies such as face-to-face contact and follow-up [33,35], word-of-mouth [27][28][29][30], and community-level recruitment [30,40,41] have been the most successful in recruiting racial and ethnic minorities. In addition to bilingual capacity and cultural knowledge, the e-CHECC-up team mobilized ethnic churches as the main setting for direct recruitment.…”

Evaluation of the cost and effectiveness of diverse recruitment methods for a genetic screening study

“…The clinics, which had a high consent rate of a relatively diverse sample, were convenient for participants and provided in-person recruitment by a demographically diverse staff, all factors shown to increase enrollment and help foster trust among prospective participants. 2,4,7,28,31 Utilizing additional approaches reported to be important in recruitment and retention of minority groups [5][6][7]9 -targeted recruitment emphasizing the importance of Latino/a participation, bilingual study staff and study materials allowing participation in Spanish-likely contributed to the successful enrollment of a high proportion of Latino/as. Finally, the option for offline completion of the study, which was used by the majority of participants who completed the study in Spanish, may have also contributed to our sample's ethnic diversity.…”

“…As enrollment inclusiveness is a problem across medical research, multiple recruitment methods have been tested, including targeted recruitment of minorities, recruitment in health-care facilities serving underrepresented communities, engagement of community leaders, and incentives. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9] To overcome the historic disparities in participation in medical research, some strategies have also focused on educating prospective participants about the value of research, increasing communication and engagement with participants Corrected: Correction throughout the course of the study, and employing ethnically diverse and stable research teams. 3,7,10 Enrolling minorities in genomic research has been reported to be especially challenging, in part due to concerns and mistrust regarding the use of DNA and genetic information.…”