title: Effective recruitment and retention strategies in community health programs.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this project was to identify effective recruitment and retention strategies used by health-promotion organisations that focus on increasing physical activity and improving nutrition within the local community.
  
  
  METHODS
  Semistructured telephone or face-to-face interviews with 25 key informants from stakeholder organisations were conducted. Key informants discussed strategies used by their organisation to effectively recruit and retain participants into community-based healthy eating and/or physical activity programs. Transcribed data were analysed with NVivo software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Effective recruitment strategies included word of mouth, links with organisations, dissemination of printed materials, media, referrals, cross-promotion of programs and face-to-face methods. Effective retention strategies included encouraging a sense of community ownership, social opportunities, recruiting a suitable leader and offering flexibility and support. Fees and support for recruiting and retaining participants was also identified.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study provides novel insights to a greatly under researched topic in the field of health promotion. There are two key take-home messages from the present study that are applicable to health practitioners as well as developers and deliverers of community health-promotion programs: (1) it is imperative that all community health organisations report on the effectiveness of their recruitment and retention, both successes and failures; and (2) there is a clear need to tailor the recruitment and retention approach to the target population and the setting the program is occurring in. SO WHAT? These findings provide important insights for the development of future community-based healthy eating and physical activity programs.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Hwy, Burwood, Vic. 3125, Australia.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McCann
authors.forename: Nicola D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Ridgers
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carver
authors.forename: Lukar E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Thornton
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Teychenne
mesh_terms: D003153:Community Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004032:Diet; D015444:Exercise; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000523:psychology*; D036301:Qualitative Research