title: Recruitment and retention of African American and Latino preadolescent females into a longitudinal biobehavioral study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Addressing recruitment challenges faced by researchers when the intended participants are young individuals from minority communities is crucial to prevent increases in study costs, prolonged length of the study, and loss of generalizability that may occur due to the resulting higher attrition rates. This article focuses on understanding the differences in census-tract level income, education, and socioeconomic status of young Latina and African American female participants and non-participants during the first 26 months of recruitment (June 2006-August 2008) in a longitudinal biobehavioral study.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Transitions Study examines the psychological and physiological determinants influencing the decrease in physical activity during puberty among Latina and African American girls aged 8 to 11 years within the greater Los Angeles area. Recruitment and retention through five main steps in the process were examined: telephone contact, telephone screening, consent, clinical screening, and baseline overnight visit.
  
  
  RESULTS
  As of August 2008, the recruitment pool consisted of 110 African Americans (17.8%) and 373 Latinas (60.4%); of these, only 40 Latinas and 11 African American girls completed the final step into the study. African Americans were less willing to provide their phone numbers, but more likely to be reached at initial phone contact than Latino families.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Understanding the heterogeneity within minority populations, population characteristics, through careful and timely analyses, could be used to adjust recruitment and retention strategies in a study involving minority youth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California 91803, USA.
authors.forename: Ahva
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shahabi
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bernstein
authors.forename: Stanley P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Azen
authors.forename: Arianna D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: McClain
authors.forename: Britni
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Belcher
authors.forename: Ya-Wen
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Selena T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Nguyen-Rodriguez
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Spruijt-Metz
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D035841:Behavioral Research; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D015141:Los Angeles; D008913:Minority Groups; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010352:Patient Dropouts / Q000523:psychology; D018579:Patient Selection; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors