title: Health parties for African American study recruitment.
abstract: Innovative strategies are needed to increase minorities' research participation. Using existing social networks within the African American community, "home health parties" were tested as a way to recruit African American women to a breast cancer control study. Parties included social, educational, and recruitment components. All women attending health parties consented, completed a survey, and received the study's preliminary breast cancer risk assessment. There were no differences in rates of participation for subsequent study components between women recruited via parties versus other methods. Health parties are viable recruitment strategies, reduce barriers to participation, provide a supportive environment, and are relatively inexpensive.
authors.affiliation: UCSD Cancer Center, Department of Surgery, UCSD School of Medicine, La Jolla, California 92093-0850, USA. gsadler@ucsd.edu
authors.forename: Georgia Robins
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Sadler
authors.forename: Crystal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: York
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Madlensky
authors.forename: Kathi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gibson
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wasserman
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rosenthal
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Barbier
authors.forename: Vicky A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Newman
authors.forename: Cindy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tso
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D001294:Attitude to Health; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000193:education / Q000379:methods*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008875:Middle Aged; D018579:Patient Selection; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012944:Social Support