Assessment of caregivers' willingness to participate in an intervention research study.

The purpose of the study was to identify factors that influenced family caregivers' decisions to participate in an intervention research study. In interviews conducted before and after the intervention, caregivers (n=21) described reasons for participation. A focused content analysis was used to examine responses. Themes that emerged included: (a) caregivers recognized a need for help; (b) expectations and motivations toward change; (c) recognition of self worth as caregivers; (d) timeliness of recruitment strategies; (e) support of research staff affected recruitment; and (f) caregivers recognized the benefits of participation. These findings support the importance of many different strategies for effective recruitment of caregivers in future studies.