Division of Biostatistics & Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, School of Public Health & Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA.
BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2009 Dec 11;9:57. doi: 10.1186/1471-2393-9-57.
The purpose of this article was to describe effective strategies for recruitment of Hispanic women into a prospective cohort study of modifiable risk factors for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Although Hispanic women have two to four times the risk of developing GDM compared with non-Hispanic white women, few GDM prevention studies have included Hispanic women.
The study was conducted in the ambulatory obstetrical practices of Baystate Medical Center located in a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse city in Massachusetts. The study employed a range of strategies to recruit Hispanic women based on a review of the literature as well as prior experience with the study population.
Over a period of 32 months, a total of 851 Hispanic prenatal care patients were recruited. Among eligible women, 52.4% agreed to participate. Participants were young (70% <25 years), with low levels of education, and on public health insurance (81.5%); 88% were unmarried. Study design features such as use of bilingual recruiters, a flexible recruitment process, training recruiters to be culturally sensitive, use of culturally tailored materials, prescreening participants, participant compensation, seeking the cooperation of clinic staff, and continuous monitoring of recruitment goals emerged as important issues influencing recruitment.
Findings suggest that investigators can successfully recruit pregnant women from ethnic minority groups of low socioeconomic status into observational studies. The study provides culturally appropriate recruitment strategies useful for practice-based settings recruiting Hispanic research participation.
本文旨在描述将西班牙裔女性纳入可改变的妊娠糖尿病（GDM）风险因素前瞻性队列研究的有效招募策略。尽管与非西班牙裔白人女性相比，西班牙裔女性患 GDM 的风险高 2 至 4 倍，但很少有 GDM 预防研究纳入西班牙裔女性。
该研究在马萨诸塞州一个社会经济和种族多样化的城市的 Baystate 医疗中心的门诊产科诊所进行。该研究根据文献回顾以及对研究人群的先前经验，采用了一系列策略来招募西班牙裔女性。
在 32 个月的时间里，共招募了 851 名西班牙裔产前护理患者。在合格的女性中，有 52.4%同意参与。参与者年龄较小（70%<25 岁），受教育程度较低，且享受公共医疗保险（81.5%）；88%未婚。研究设计特点，如使用双语招募人员、灵活的招募流程、培训招募人员以保持文化敏感性、使用文化适应性材料、对参与者进行预筛选、参与者补偿、寻求诊所工作人员的合作以及持续监测招募目标，都成为影响招募的重要因素。
研究结果表明，研究人员可以成功地从社会经济地位较低的少数民族孕妇中招募到观察性研究对象。本研究提供了适用于基于实践环境的招募西班牙裔研究参与者的文化适当的招募策略。
