Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Ave, KSB-23, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA.
BMC Pulm Med. 2023 Aug 4;23(1):285. doi: 10.1186/s12890-023-02582-6.
Key to the success of any prospective cohort study is the effective recruitment and retention of participants, but the specific factors that influence younger adults of the Millennial generation to participate in research are not well-understood. The objective of this qualitative study was to identify factors that motivated participation and engagement in longitudinal research studies focused on respiratory health among a diverse group of young adults.
We conducted qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 50 younger adult participants (aged 25-35 years) regarding factors influencing their participation in longitudinal research studies. Thematic analysis was used to develop, organize, and tabulate the frequency of key themes. In exploratory analyses, we examined for patterns in the distribution of key themes across racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic groups.
Participants identified several key themes that affected their willingness to participate in longitudinal studies. These included the health-related benefits generated by research (both to the individual and to society at-large), factors related to the institution and study team conducting the research, concerns regarding unethical and/or unrepresentative study design, and barriers to participation in research. Certain factors may be more impactful to underrepresented groups, including concerns regarding data privacy and confidentiality.
In this diverse group of younger adults, we identified specific factors that motivated participation and predicted high engagement in longitudinal research studies focused on respiratory health. Implementing and integrating these factors into study protocols may improve recruitment and retention, including among participants who are historically underrepresented in research.
任何前瞻性队列研究成功的关键在于有效地招募和保留参与者，但影响千禧一代年轻成年人参与研究的具体因素还不是很清楚。本定性研究的目的是确定激励因素，以促进不同背景的年轻成年人参与以呼吸道健康为重点的纵向研究。
我们对 50 名年轻成年参与者（年龄 25-35 岁）进行了关于影响他们参与纵向研究的因素的定性、半结构式访谈。采用主题分析来开发、组织和汇总关键主题的频率。在探索性分析中，我们检查了关键主题在种族、民族或社会经济群体中的分布模式。
参与者确定了几个影响他们参与纵向研究意愿的关键主题。这些主题包括研究带来的与健康相关的益处（对个人和整个社会）、与进行研究的机构和研究团队有关的因素、对不道德和/或无代表性的研究设计的担忧，以及参与研究的障碍。某些因素可能对代表性不足的群体更有影响，包括对数据隐私和保密性的担忧。
在这群多样化的年轻成年人中，我们确定了一些具体的激励因素，这些因素促进了他们参与以呼吸道健康为重点的纵向研究，并预测了他们的高参与度。在研究方案中实施和整合这些因素可能会提高招募和保留率，包括在历史上在研究中代表性不足的参与者中。
