Department of Geriatric Medicine, University of Auckland and Waitematā District Health Board, Auckland, New Zealand.
Waitematā District Health Board, Auckland, New Zealand.
Australas J Ageing. 2021 Jun;40(2):177-183. doi: 10.1111/ajag.12898. Epub 2021 Feb 16.
Retirement villages are semi-closed communities, access usually being gained via village managers. This paper explores issues recruiting a representative resident cohort, as background to a study of residents, to acquire sociodemographic, health and disability data and trial an intervention designed to improve outcomes.
We planned approaching all Auckland/Waitematā District villages and, via managers, contacting residents ('letter-drop'; 'door-knocks'). In 'small' villages (n ≤ 60 units), we planned contacting all residents, randomly selecting in 'larger' villages. We excluded those with doubtful or absent legal capacity.
We approached managers of 53 of 65 villages. Thirty-four permitted recruitment. Some prohibited 'letter-drops' and/or 'door-knocks'. Hence, we recruited volunteers (23 villages) via meetings, posters, newsletters and word-of-mouth, that is representative sampling obtained from 11/34 villages. We recruited 578 residents (median age = 82 years; 420 = female; 217:361 sampled:volunteers), finding differences in baseline parameters of sampled vs. volunteers.
Due to organisational/managers' policy, and national legislation restrictions, our sample does not represent our intended population well. Researchers should investigate alternative data sources, for example electoral rolls and censuses.
退休村是半封闭社区，通常只能通过村长进入。本文探讨了招募具有代表性的居民群体的问题，为一项研究居民的背景、获取社会人口学、健康和残疾数据以及试验旨在改善结果的干预措施做准备。
我们计划联系奥克兰/怀塔科拉地区的所有村庄，并通过村长联系居民（“信件投递”；“敲门”）。在“小”村庄（n≤60 个单位）中，我们计划随机联系所有居民，而在“大”村庄中则进行随机选择。我们排除了那些法律能力可疑或不存在的人。
我们联系了 65 个村庄中的 53 个村长。34 个允许招募。有些则禁止“信件投递”和/或“敲门”。因此，我们通过会议、海报、通讯和口碑从 23 个村庄中招募了志愿者，即从 11 个村庄中获得了代表性抽样。我们招募了 578 名居民（中位数年龄为 82 岁；420 名为女性；361 名抽样：志愿者），发现抽样与志愿者之间的基线参数存在差异。
由于组织/管理人员的政策以及国家立法限制，我们的样本不能很好地代表我们的目标人群。研究人员应调查其他数据来源，例如选民名单和人口普查。
