title: Recruiting hard-to-reach subjects: is it worth the effort?
abstract: Little information is available on the utility of spending resources to recruit hard-to-reach subjects. In particular, the compliance of such subjects with study protocols and visit schedules has not been documented. We present recruitment data from a two-phase survey of asthma prevalence in which a subset of respondents to a brief screening survey was recruited to attend a 90-min clinic visit. Although 39% of phase I subjects responding to initial contact attempts participated in the second phase of the study, this dropped to 12% among those responding to the sixth contact attempt (a phone follow-up). In studies in which the representatives of the sample is not of paramount importance, we see little benefit in aggressively seeking to recruit hard-to-reach subjects.
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente Center for Health and Research, Portland, Oregon 97227.
authors.forename: W M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Vollmer
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Osborne
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hertert
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Buist
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D009922:Oregon / Q000453:epidemiology; D010349:Patient Compliance; D015995:Prevalence; D012107:Research Design; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires