A multi-component strategy for recruiting families for community health research was tested among 65 Mexican American families in Galveston, Texas. This strategy, heavily relying on social networking techniques, resulted in an 88% recruitment rate. Most of the desired participants were obtained within five weeks. While the strategy is labor-intensive and may result in sampling bias, the high recruitment rate indicates that the strategy deserves further application in a variety of settings.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Agras, W. S.
, Bradford, R. H., & Marshall, G. D. (1982). Recruitment for clin-ical trials: The Lipid Research Clinics Coronary Primary Prevention Trial Experience. Circulation, 66, all of part II.
2.
Bott, E.
(1957). Family and social network. London: Tavistock.
3.
Croke, G.
(1979). Recruitment for the National Cooperative Gallstone Study. Clinical Pharmacology in Therapeutics, 25, 259-263.
4.
Fischer, C. S.
(1982). To dwell among friends: Personal networks in town and city. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
5.
Hooks, P. C., Tsong, Y., Baranowski, T., et al. (1986) Recruitment strategies in preventive medicine research. Unpublished manuscript.
6.
Hyman, H. H.
, & Singer, E. (Eds.) (1968). Readings in reference group theory and research. New York: Free Press.
7.
Lando, H. A.
(1982). Inexpensive methods for recruiting subjects to smoking cessation programs. Adictive Behviors, 7, 79-81.
8.
Lipid Research Clinics Program
. (1983). Participant recruitment to the Coronary Primary Prevention Trial. Journal of Chronic Diseases, 36, 451-465.
9.
Nader, P. R.
, Baranowski, T., Vanderpool, N. A., et al. (1983). The Family Health Project: Cardiovascular risk reduction education for children and parents. Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 4, 3-10.
10.
Parker, F. C.
, Croft, J. B., Supik, J. D., Webber, L. S., Hunter, S. M., & Berenson, G. S. (1986). Factors associated with adolescent participation in a cardiovascular risk factor assessment program. Journal of School Health, 56, 23-28.
11.
Pirie, P. L.
, Elias, W. S., Wackman, D. B., Jacobs, D. R., Murray, D. M., Mittelmark, M. B., Luepker, R. V., & Blackburn, H. (1986). Characteristics of participants and nonparticipants in a community cardiovascular disease risk factor screening: The Minnesota Heart Health Program. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2, 20-25.
12.
Pratt, L.
(1976). Family structure and effective health behavior: The energized family. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
13.
Prout, T. E.
(1981). Patient recruitment techniques in clinical trials. Controlled Clinical Trials, 1, 313-318.
14.
Sussman, M. B.
(1972). The help pattern in the middle class family. American Sociological Review, 18, 22-28.
15.
Valle, R.
, & Vega, W. (Eds.) (1980). Hispanic natural support systems: Mental health promotion perspectives. Sacramento, CA: State of California, Depa-rtment of Mental Health.
16.
Whitten, N. E. Jr.
, & Wolfe, A. W. (1973). Network analysis. In J. J. Honigmann (Ed.), Handbook of social and cultural anthropology. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally.
