Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-24-2024

Identifier

DOI: 10.1186/s12874-024-02287-2; PMCID: PMC11267736

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Lack of diversity in participants throughout the research process limits the generalizability of findings and may contribute to health disparities. There are unique challenges to recruitment of families to pediatric cancer research studies, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Thus, there is a need to evaluate the most effective recruitment and retention strategies to optimize equitable recruitment of diverse participants.

METHODS: The present study adapted and implemented methods outlined previously in the literature. These previous efforts were developed to address barriers to pediatric research, behavioral health intervention research and research with Black adolescents. Recruitment and retention strategies are described across four different time points: pre-approach, initial connection, building connection and follow-up. Eligible families of children with a pediatric cancer diagnosis were approached during a routine oncology visit. Once consented, enrollment and retention rates over three timepoints of data collection were recorded and evaluated.

RESULTS: Results indicated high rates of enrollment (86%) and retention (95%) for eligible participants. There were no trends in heightened attrition for any specific subgroup.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study are promising and suggest these recruitment and retention strategies may be useful in recruiting individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Journal Title

BMC medical research methodology [electronic resource]

Volume

24

Issue

1

First Page

161

Last Page

161

MeSH Keywords

Humans; Patient Selection; Neoplasms; Child; Adolescent; Female; Male; Health Equity; Black or African American; Biomedical Research; Pediatrics

Keywords

Diversity; Health equity; Oncology; Pediatrics; Psychosocial; Recruitment; Retention

Comments

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Publisher's Link: https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12874-024-02287-2

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