Overcoming Recruitment and Retention Challenges

1
Overcoming Recruitment and Retention Challenges

• Constance M. Wiemann, PhD
• Baylor College of Medicine

2
Learning Objectives

• Participants will be able to identify 5
  strategies for
• recruiting adolescents into their Care program
• recruiting adolescents into an evaluation of
  their Care program
• retaining Care program and evaluation component .
• Participants will learn ways to use adolescents
  to guide recruitment and retention practices.

3
Warm-Up Activity
4
A Child in Your Life

• Evaluation of parent education program
• 12 sites randomized into 4 groups
• Health department, school, social service agency,
  clinic
• N88 parenting teens
• Recruitment/implementation by site leaders
• 88 retention at 6-mo
• Traveled to teens, 11 interview
• Outcomes participation, knowledge, attitudes,
  behavior

5
Adolescent Motherhood Project

• Epidemiologic study, 12-18yo
• Hospital post-partum ward
• N932
• lt10 refusal, highest for SS Latinas
• Initial interview, survey mailed at 3, 6, 12, 18,
  24, 48 months
• 80 return across 24 months
• Phone, clinic, travel to teens

6
Project ROSE

• Evaluation of STD intervention
• Non pregnant 16 to 21 year-olds
• Community reproductive health clinic
• N376
• 41 refusal, higher for Latinas
• 2-week intervention (69)
• 6-mo visit intervention, assessment
• 70 intervention, 82 control
• 12-mo assessment only (61, 68)

7
Recruitment Start-up

• Site characteristics
• Consult experts
• Project personnel
• Protocols

8
Site Characteristics

• Project staff versus site staff
• Educate site staff on rigors of study design
• Facilitate team effort project and site staff
• Logistics of recruitment

9
Consult Experts Teens and Families

• Project name
• What would make it easier to participate, harder
• What is important to your target population
• Establish teen/family/male partner advisory board
• Needs assessment

10
Project Personnel

• Screen carefully
• Personality is everything
• Culturally congruent
• Train, practice

11
Protocols

• Develop
• Pilot
• Revise
• Review
  
  

12
Recruitment in Practice

• Follow a script
• Set positive tone at start of recruitment
  session
• Monitor who agrees/refuses
• Recruit by return appointment

13
Retention Keys

• Creativity
• Persistence
• Ongoing needs assessment
• Why keep coming?
• Why not coming?

14
Retention Strategies

• Recruitment experience
• Contact information
• Drivers license, SS, parents, friends,
  relatives, boyfriend, cell phone, email address
• Check regularly
• Recheck if disconnected
• Public databases

15
Reminders

• Appointment cards
• Telephone
• How frequently?
• Computer, IM, text msg
• Follow-up missed visits

16
Team Meetings

• Weekly
• Whats working? Whats not?
• Communication style
• Times of day
• Type of message
• Strategies attempted
• Play to team member strengths
• Recruitment/retention are difficult
• Celebrate success

17
Travel to Them

• Home interviews
• Meet at restaurant, work, school
• Cell phone messaging, email, website log-in
• Monitor clinic appointments, food stamp pick-up
• Piggyback evaluation on other activities

18
Alternate Methods of Data Collection

• Mail and phone
• Schools, social service agencies
• Delivery/birth records, medical/clinical records
• Obtain release ahead of time

19
Incentives

• Type
• Baby gifts go a long way
• Mall certificate
• Money, especially around the holidays
• Raffles
• Timing

20
Comparison Groups

• Delayed intervention
• Parallel intervention
• No intervention

21
Brainstorming Activity
22
Summary

• Pregnant/parenting teens are a moving target
• Recruitment and retention are about being
  organized, creative, persistent
• Consider differences between program and
  evaluation participation