Dealing with diversity: recruiting churches and women for a randomized trial of mammography promotion.
There is little documentation about the recruitment process for church-based health education programs. In this study, the authors recruit African American, Latino, and white churches and women members (age 50 to 80) for a randomized church-based trial of mammography promotion in Los Angeles County. Efforts to enhance recruitment began 10 months before churches were invited to participate and included a variety of community-based strategies. Subsequently, 45 churches were recruited over a 5-month period through group pastor breakfast meetings and church-specific follow-up. In close collaboration with the 45 churches, the authors administered church-based surveys over 6 months and identified 1,967 age-eligible women who agreed to be contacted by the program team. It was found that an extended resource intensive period of relationship-building and community-based activities were necessary to conduct church-based programs effectively, particularly among older and ethnically diverse urban populations.
Derose
K P
KP
RAND, Santa Monica, California 90407-2138, USA. Kathryn_Derose@rand.org
Hawes-Dawson
J
J
Fox
S A
SA
Maldonado
N
N
Tatum
A
A
Kington
R
R
D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D018672:Community Health Planning; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D015141:Los Angeles; D008327:Mammography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D018579:Patient Selection; D012067:Religion