Comparison of recruitment strategies and associated disease prevalence for health promotion in rural elderly.
BACKGROUND
Although interest in health promotion for the elderly is increasing, the issues of recruitment into such programs and self-selection have not been well explored. While clinical studies require high participation levels and expensive recruitment, community efforts are satisfied with recruiting small numbers of volunteers from poorly defined populations. These small samples may not be representative of the populations at risk.


METHODS
As part of the Rural Health Promotion Project, a Medicare demonstration, community-based recruitment methods were evaluated and participant characteristics were compared. A total of 3,884 individuals ages 65-79 were recruited in northwestern Pennsylvania, using four sequential recruitment strategies, varying in aggressiveness. The methods were: (A) mail only, (B) mail with phone recruitment follow-up, (C) mail with phone recruitment and scheduling, and (D) mail with aggressive phone recruitment and scheduling.


RESULTS
Recruitment yields were Method A, 13.5%; B, 21.1%; and C, 31.6%. The most aggressive Method (D) yielded 37.0% participation. More aggressive methods (C and D) recruited more educated individuals. No other demographic or health status differences were noted.


CONCLUSIONS
These data show that large numbers of the elderly can be recruited into a health promotion program using aggressive methods and professional interviewers.
Ives
D G
DG
Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261.
Kuller
L H
LH
Schulz
R
R
Traven
N D
ND
Lave
J R
JR
D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009017:Morbidity; D010414:Pennsylvania; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012423:Rural Health