Recruiting young adult cancer survivors for behavioral research.
Young adults have been dramatically underrepresented in cancer survivorship research. One contributing factor is the difficulty recruiting this population. To identify effective recruitment strategies, the current study assessed the yield of strategies used to recruit young survivors for an exercise intervention including: clinic-based recruitment, recruitment at cancer-related events, mailings, telephone-based recruitment, advertising on the internet, radio, television and social networking media, distributing brochures and word-of-mouth referrals. When taking into account the strategies for which we could track the number of survivors approached, recruitment at an oncology clinic was the most productive: 38 % of those approached were screened and 8 % enrolled. When evaluating which strategy yielded the greatest percentage of the sample, however, mailings were the most productive. Given widespread use of the internet and social networking by young adults, investigators should also consider these low-cost recruitment strategies.
Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, Miriam Hospital and Alpert Medical School of Brown University, 1 Hoppin Street, Providence, RI 02903, USA. CRabin@lifespan.org
Carolyn
C
Rabin
Santina
S
Horowitz
Bess
B
Marcus
D000328:Adult; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D035841:Behavioral Research; D002173:Cancer Care Facilities; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D010174:Pamphlets; D018579:Patient Selection; D010865:Pilot Projects; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult