title: eHealth recruitment challenges.
abstract: Little is known about effective eHealth recruitment methods. This paper presents recruitment challenges associated with enrolling African-American girls aged 8-10 years in an eHealth obesity prevention program, their effect on the recruitment plan, and potential implications for eHealth research. Although the initial recruitment strategy was literature-informed, it failed to enroll the desired number of girls within a reasonable time period. Therefore, the recruitment strategy was reformulated to incorporate principles of social marketing and traditional marketing techniques. The resulting plan included both targeted, highly specific strategies (e.g., selected churches), and more broad-based approaches (e.g., media exposure, mass mailings, radio advertisements). The revised plan enabled recruitment goals to be attained. Media appeared to be particularly effective at reaching the intended audience. Future research should identify the most effective recruitment strategies for reaching potential eHealth audiences.
authors.affiliation: USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine, 1100 Bates Street, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Debbe
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Ashanti
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Canada
authors.forename: Riddhi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bhatt
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Plesko
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Baranowski
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cullen
authors.forename: Issa
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zakeri