Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland.
PLoS One. 2021 Feb 12;16(2):e0247141. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247141. eCollection 2021.
High participation in epidemiological studies is crucial for both external and internal validity. Because response rates have declined in recent years, there is an increasing need to understand the drivers and the barriers to research participation. This study aims to uncover the motivations in favour and against participation of older adults to an epidemiological study on health and dementia.
Twenty-two older adults, who already took part to the preliminary phase of an epidemiological study in Switzerland, agreed to participate to semi-structured, face-to- face interviews. An experienced researcher carried out all interviews in a quiet place of choice of the interviewee either at their domicile or the university, between November 2019 and January 2020. The interviews were audio and video taped, transcribed verbatim, and thematically analysed by two independent researchers.
We identified three main themes for the motivations in favour of participation (i.e. personal, related to the outcomes of research, and altruistic motivations), and we highlighted subthemes for each theme (e.g. personal motivations: curiosity; civic engagement; interest in the topic; trust in science; everyone counts; openness; play the game). Motivations against participation reflected the first two themes, while there was no counterpart for altruistic motivations.
Our thematic analysis revealed that older adults hold specular motivations in favour and against participation to research. Studying jointly motivations in favour and against provides information for recruitment strategies and to overcome barriers to participation, respectively. Participatory action research can inform the design and conduction of and should precede epidemiological studies in older adults, and can potentially contribute to attain high response rates.
高参与度对于流行病学研究的外部和内部有效性至关重要。由于近年来回复率下降，人们越来越需要了解参与研究的驱动力和障碍。本研究旨在揭示老年人参与一项关于健康和痴呆症的流行病学研究的赞成和反对的动机。
22 名已经参与瑞士一项流行病学研究初步阶段的老年人同意接受半结构化的面对面访谈。一名经验丰富的研究人员在受访者选择的安静场所，如他们的住所或大学，于 2019 年 11 月至 2020 年 1 月之间进行了所有访谈。访谈进行了录音和录像，并由两名独立的研究人员逐字逐句地转录，并进行主题分析。
我们确定了赞成参与的三个主要动机主题（即个人、与研究结果相关和利他动机），并强调了每个主题的子主题（例如个人动机：好奇心；公民参与；对主题的兴趣；对科学的信任；人人有责；开放；参与游戏）。反对参与的动机反映了前两个主题，而利他动机则没有对应主题。
我们的主题分析表明，老年人对参与研究持有赞成和反对的相似动机。同时研究赞成和反对的动机可以为招募策略和克服参与障碍提供信息。参与式行动研究可以为设计和进行流行病学研究提供信息，并有可能有助于实现高回复率。
