title: Effectiveness of a community research registry to recruit minority and underserved adults for health research.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recruiting minorities and underserved populations into population-based studies is a long standing challenge. This study examined the feasibility of recruiting adults from a community research registry.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ethnically diverse, bilingual staff attended health fairs, inviting adults to join a registry. We examined rates of successful contact, scheduling, and participation for studies that used the registry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five studies queried 6,886 research registry members (48% Hispanic and 38% black) and attempted to contact 2,301 potentially eligible participants; eligibility criteria varied across studies. We successfully contacted 1,130 members, 51.9% were scheduled to participate and of those, 60.8% completed their study appointment. Non-Hispanic whites were less likely than Hispanics to be interested, but among those scheduling an appointment, participation did not differ by race/ethnicity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Community research registries are a feasible and efficient method for recruiting minority and underserved adults and may address disparities in access to and participation in health research.
authors.affiliation: Division of Behavioral and Communication Sciences, Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Wendy Pechero
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Bishop
authors.forename: Jasmin A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Tiro
authors.forename: Joanne M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Sanders
authors.forename: Simon J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Craddock Lee
authors.forename: Celette Sugg
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Skinner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups; D010560:Personnel Selection; D012042:Registries
keywords: African Americans; Hispanics; community events; health disparities; minority recruitment; registry