University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2013 Mar 22;13:75. doi: 10.1186/1471-2393-13-75.
Pregnant women were recruited into the Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition (APrON) study in two cities in Alberta, Calgary and Edmonton. In Calgary, a larger proportion of women obtain obstetrical care from family physicians than from obstetricians; otherwise the cities have similar characteristics. Despite similarities of the cities, the recruitment success was very different. The purpose of this paper is to describe recruitment strategies, determine which were most successful and discuss reasons for the different success rates between the two cities.
Recruitment methods in both cities involved approaching pregnant women (< 27 weeks gestation) through the waiting rooms of physician offices, distributing posters and pamphlets, word of mouth, media, and the Internet.
Between May 2009 and November 2010, 1,200 participants were recruited, 86% (1,028/1,200) from Calgary and 14% (172/1,200) from Edmonton, two cities with similar demographics. The most effective strategy overall involved face-to-face recruitment through clinics in physician and ultrasound offices with access to a large volume of women in early pregnancy. This method was most economical when clinic staff received an honorarium to discuss the study with patients and forward contact information to the research team.
Recruiting a pregnancy cohort face-to-face through physician offices was the most effective method in both cities and a new critically important finding is that employing this method is only feasible in large volume maternity clinics. The proportion of family physicians providing antenatal and post-natal care may impact recruitment success and should be studied further.
在阿尔伯塔省卡尔加里和埃德蒙顿的两个城市，招募了孕妇参加阿尔伯塔省妊娠结局和营养（APrON）研究。在卡尔加里，有更大比例的妇女从家庭医生那里获得产科护理，而不是从产科医生那里获得；否则，这两个城市具有相似的特征。尽管这两个城市具有相似之处，但招募的成功率却大不相同。本文的目的是描述招募策略，确定哪些策略最成功，并讨论两个城市成功率不同的原因。
两个城市的招募方法都涉及通过医生办公室的候诊室接近孕妇（<27 周妊娠），分发海报和小册子，口碑，媒体和互联网。
2009 年 5 月至 2010 年 11 月，共招募了 1200 名参与者，其中 86%（1028/1200）来自卡尔加里，14%（172/1200）来自埃德蒙顿，这两个城市的人口统计学特征相似。总体而言，最有效的策略是通过医生和超声办公室的诊所进行面对面的招募，这些诊所可以接触到大量早期妊娠的妇女。当诊所工作人员获得酬金与患者讨论研究并将联系信息转发给研究团队时，这种方法最经济。
通过医生办公室面对面招募妊娠队列是两个城市最有效的方法，一个新的重要发现是，只有在大量产妇诊所中采用这种方法才是可行的。提供产前和产后护理的家庭医生的比例可能会影响招募成功率，应进一步研究。
