abstract: 'BackgroundThe recruitment of participants into community-based

  randomized controlled trials studying childhood obesity is often

  challenging, especially from low-income racial/ethnical minorities and

  when long-term participant commitments are required. This paper

  describes strategies used to recruit and enroll predominately low-income

  racial/ethnic minority parents and children into the Childhood Obesity

  Prevention and Treatment Research (COPTR) consortium.MethodsThe COPTR

  consortium has run four independent 3-year, multi-level (individual,

  family, school, clinic, and community) community-based randomized

  controlled trials. Two were prevention trials in preschool children and

  the other two were treatment trials in pre-adolescents and adolescent

  youth. All trials reported monthly participant recruitment numbers using

  a standardized method over the projected 18-24months of recruitment.

  After randomization of participants was completed, recruitment staff and

  investigators from each trial retrospectively completed a survey of

  recruitment strategies and their perceived top three recruitment

  strategies and barriers.ResultsRecruitment was completed in 15-21months

  across trials, enrolling a total of 1745 parent-child dyads- out of 6314

  screened. The number of children screened per randomized child was 4.6

  and 3.5 in the two prevention trials, and 3.1 and 2.5 in the two

  treatment trials. Recruitment strategies reported included: (1) careful

  planning, (2) working with trusting community partners, (3) hiring

  recruitment staff who were culturally sensitive, personality

  appropriate, and willing to work flexible hours, (4) contacting

  potential participants actively and repeatedly, (5) recruiting at times

  and locations convenient for participants, (6) providing incentives to

  participants to complete baseline measures, (7) using a tracking

  database, (8) evaluating whether participants understand the activities

  and expectations of the study, and (9) assessing participants''

  motivation for participating. Working with community partners, hiring

  culturally sensitive staff, and contacting potential participants

  repeatedly were cited by two trials among their top three strategies.

  The requirement of a 3-year commitment to the trial was cited by two

  trials to be among the top three recruitment

  barriers.ConclusionsComprehensive strategies that include community

  partnership support, culturally sensitive recruitment staff, and

  repeated contacts with potential participants can result in successful

  recruitment of low-income racial/ethnic minority families into obesity

  prevention and treatment trials.Trial registrationNET-Works trial:

  ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01606891. Registered on 28 May 2012.GROW trial:

  ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01316653. Registered on 16 March 2011.GOALS

  trial: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01642836. Registered on 17 July

  2012.IMPACT trial: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01514279. Registered on 23

  January 2012.'
affiliation: 'Cui, ZH (Corresponding Author), Univ N Carolina, Gillings Sch Global
  Publ Hlth, Dept Nutr, Chapel Hill, NC 27515 USA.

  Cui, Zhaohui; Truesdale, Kimberly P.; Ward, Dianne S., Univ N Carolina, Gillings
  Sch Global Publ Hlth, Dept Nutr, Chapel Hill, NC 27515 USA.

  Robinson, Thomas N.; Matheson, Donna, Stanford Univ, Sch Med, Dept Pediat, Stanford
  Solut Sci Lab, Stanford, CA USA.

  Pemberton, Victoria; Pratt, Charlotte A., NHLBI, NIH, Bldg 10, Bethesda, MD 20892
  USA.

  French, Simone A.; Hotop, Anne M., Univ Minnesota, Sch Publ Hlth, Div Epidemiol
  \& Community Hlth, Minneapolis, MN USA.

  Escarfuller, Juan; Po''e, Eli, Vanderbilt Univ, Med Ctr, Dept Pediat, Nashville,
  TN 37232 USA.

  Casey, Terri L., Rainbow Babies \& Childrens Hosp, 2101 Adelbert Rd, Cleveland,
  OH 44106 USA.

  Lotas, Lynn J.; Andrisin, Sharon, Case Western Reserve Univ, Frances Payne Bolton
  Sch Nursing, Cleveland, OH 44106 USA.'
article-number: '296'
author: Cui, Zhaohui and Truesdale, Kimberly P. and Robinson, Thomas N. and Pemberton,
  Victoria and French, Simone A. and Escarfuller, Juan and Casey, Terri L. and Hotop,
  Anne M. and Matheson, Donna and Pratt, Charlotte A. and Lotas, Lynn J. and Po'e,
  Eli and Andrisin, Sharon and Ward, Dianne S.
author-email: cuizhaohui2008@gmail.com
author_list:
- family: Cui
  given: Zhaohui
- family: Truesdale
  given: Kimberly P.
- family: Robinson
  given: Thomas N.
- family: Pemberton
  given: Victoria
- family: French
  given: Simone A.
- family: Escarfuller
  given: Juan
- family: Casey
  given: Terri L.
- family: Hotop
  given: Anne M.
- family: Matheson
  given: Donna
- family: Pratt
  given: Charlotte A.
- family: Lotas
  given: Lynn J.
- family: Po'e
  given: Eli
- family: Andrisin
  given: Sharon
- family: Ward
  given: Dianne S.
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1186/s13063-019-3418-0
eissn: 1745-6215
files: []
journal: TRIALS
keywords: 'Recruitment; Strategy; Barrier; Intervention; Minority; Hispanic;

  African American; Low-income; Children; Parent-child dyads'
keywords-plus: 'RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED-TRIAL; CLINICAL-TRIALS; FAMILY; ADOLESCENTS;

  OVERWEIGHT; RETENTION; MINORITY; WEIGHT; IMPACT; CARE'
language: English
month: MAY 28
number-of-cited-references: '30'
orcid-numbers: French, Simone/0000-0003-3413-5985
papis_id: a4a320f0dc670ffe6469440caabd8c29
ref: Cui2019recruitmentstrategie
times-cited: '15'
title: 'Recruitment strategies for predominantly low-income, multi-racial/ethnic children
  and parents to 3-year community-based intervention trials: Childhood Obesity Prevention
  and Treatment Research (COPTR) Consortium'
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000469521100002
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '4'
volume: '20'
web-of-science-categories: Medicine, Research \& Experimental
year: '2019'