HealthPartners Research Foundation 8170 33rd Avenue S, MS#21111R, Bloomington, MN 55425, USA.
Contemp Clin Trials. 2011 Sep;32(5):654-61. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2011.05.002. Epub 2011 May 12.
Caregivers for a family member with dementia experience chronic long-term stress that may benefit from new complementary therapies such as mindfulness-based stress reduction. Little is known however, about the challenges of recruiting and retaining family caregivers to research on mind-body based complementary therapies. Our pilot study is the first of its kind to successfully recruit caregivers for a family member with dementia to a randomized controlled pilot study of mindfulness-based stress reduction. The study used an array of recruitment strategies and techniques that were tailored to fit the unique features of our recruitment sources and employed retention strategies that placed high value on establishing early and ongoing communication with potential participants. Innovative recruitment methods including conducting outreach to health plan members and generating press coverage were combined with standard methods of community outreach and paid advertising. We were successful in exceeding our recruitment goal and retained 92% of the study participants at post-intervention (2 months) and 90% at 6 months. Recruitment and retention for family caregiver interventions employing mind-body based complementary therapies can be successful despite many challenges. Barriers include cultural perceptions about the use and benefit of complementary therapies, cultural differences with how the role of family caregiver is perceived, the use of group-based designs requiring significant time commitment by participants, and travel and respite care needs for busy family caregivers.
照顾痴呆症患者的家庭成员会经历长期的慢性压力，他们可能会受益于新的补充疗法，如基于正念的减压疗法。然而，关于招募和留住家庭照顾者参与身心补充疗法研究的挑战，我们知之甚少。我们的试点研究是首例成功招募痴呆症患者家庭成员的照顾者参加基于正念的减压疗法的随机对照试点研究。该研究采用了一系列的招募策略和技术，这些策略和技术是根据我们的招募来源的独特特征量身定制的，并采用了保留策略，高度重视与潜在参与者建立早期和持续的沟通。创新的招募方法包括向健康计划成员进行外展活动和产生新闻报道，同时结合社区外展和付费广告等标准方法。我们成功地超过了我们的招募目标，在干预后（2 个月）保留了 92%的研究参与者，在 6 个月时保留了 90%。尽管面临许多挑战，但采用身心补充疗法的家庭护理干预措施的招募和保留仍然可以取得成功。障碍包括对补充疗法的使用和益处的文化观念、对家庭照顾者角色的认知的文化差异、基于小组的设计需要参与者大量的时间投入，以及忙碌的家庭照顾者的旅行和喘息护理需求。
