Engagement, Recruitment, and Retention in a Trans-Community, Randomized Controlled Trial for the Prevention of Obesity in Rural American Indian and Hispanic Children

• Published in: The Journal of primary prevention Vol. 35; no. 3; pp. 135 - 149
• Main Authors: Cruz, Theresa H., Davis, Sally M., FitzGerald, Courtney A., Canaca, Glenda F., Keane, Patricia C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.06.2014; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: American Indians; Attrition; Biological and medical sciences; Child Health; Child, Preschool; Children; Children & youth; Childrens health; Chile; Clinical trials; Communication; Community; Community and Environmental Psychology; Community Relations; Community-Based Participatory Research - methods; Community-Based Participatory Research - organization & administration; Cultural Competency; Departments; Early Intervention (Education); Exercise; Exercise - physiology; Feeding Behavior - ethnology; Feeding Behavior - physiology; Food Industry; Formative evaluation; General aspects; Grocery stores; Health Psychology; Health Services; Hispanic Americans; Human Services; Humans; Indians, North American; Interpersonal Competence; Intervention; Medical sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabolic diseases; Native North Americans; New Mexico; Obesity; Parents - education; Patient Selection; Pediatric Obesity - ethnology; Pediatric Obesity - prevention & control; Pediatrics; Physical fitness; Preschool Children; Prevention; Prevention and actions; Public Health; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Randomized Controlled Trials; Recruitment; Report from the Field; Research Design; Researchers; Retention; Rural Areas; Rural Health - ethnology; School Holding Power; New Mexico; United States > US; Rural; RCT; Preschool; American Indian; Hispanic; Obesity prevention; Recruitment; Human; Preschool age; Amerindian; Obesity; Rural environment; Nutrition disorder; Latinamerican; Retention; Randomized controlled trial; Prevention; Randomization; Clinical trial; Child; Community; Nutritional status
• ISSN: 0278-095X; 1573-6547
• DOI: 10.1007/s10935-014-0340-9

Engagement, recruitment and retention of participants are critical to the success of research studies but specific strategies are rarely elucidated in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to describe the engagement, recruitment and retention process and outcomes in the Child Health Initiative for Lifelong Eating and Exercise (CHILE) study, and to describe lessons learned in the process. CHILE is a multi-level, group randomized controlled trial of a childhood obesity prevention intervention in rural American Indian and predominantly Hispanic Head Start (HS) centers in New Mexico. Barriers to engagement, recruitment and retention included distrust of researchers, long travel distances, and different HS and community structures. CHILE employed multiple strategies from the onset including the use of formative assessment, building on previous relationships, developing Memoranda of Agreement, using a community engagement specialist, and gaining support of a community champion. As a result of lessons learned, additional strategies were employed, including more frequent feedback to intervention sites, revised permission forms, telephone reminders, increased site visits and over-scheduling of interviews. These strategies resulted in the recruitment of 16 HS centers, 1,879 children, 655 parents, 7 grocery stores and 14 healthcare providers, meeting or exceeding recruitment goals. By combining principles of community engagement, a variety of recruitment strategies, and lessons learned, this study obtained a high level of recruitment and retention.