Lessons Learned From a Food Environment Intervention Study: Recruitment and Retention of Participants in Disadvantaged Urban Inner-City Neighborhoods

Abstract

Growing health inequities have led to calls for population health intervention research that can contribute to improving the health of marginalized populations, but conducting research with these communities can be challenging. When research aims to examine and understand an aspect of health in a population characterized as hard-to-reach or marginalized, recruitment techniques appear to have a significant impact on participation and sample retention in longitudinal studies. We examine and comment on the recruitment and retention techniques used in the Good Food, Healthy Families study conducted in low-income, inner-city neighborhoods in a midsized Canadian city; we hope that this will inform recruitment and retention approaches for population health intervention studies in similar populations. It is a responsibility of researchers who wish to engage with population health interventions that have the potential to improve health equity to gather information in ways that are respectful.