Improving Survey Response Rates from Parents in School-Based Research Using a Multi-Level Approach (original) (raw)
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The National Children's Study: Early Recruitment Outcomes Using the Direct Outreach Approach
Pediatrics, 2016
In 2009, the National Children's Study (NCS) Vanguard Study tested the feasibility of household-based recruitment and participant enrollment by using a birth rate probability sample. In 2010, the NCS Program Office launched 3 alternative recruitment methods. We tested whether direct outreach (DO) recruitment could be a more efficient strategy to recruit women of child-bearing age. The NCS DO recruitment approach recruited women, 18 to 49 years, who were pregnant or trying to conceive using passive recruitment methods emphasizing broad community outreach and engagement to create study awareness. Study mailings to listed households included a pregnancy screening questionnaire to identify potentially eligible women from selected neighborhoods to contact the study center. Unique features of this recruitment approach included the following: (1) expansion of selected neighborhoods to maximize potential participant recruitment and enrollment while minimizing in-person participant conta...
BMC Public Health, 2017
Background: Recruitment of participants with obesity is a real challenge. To reduce time and costs in similar projects, we investigated various recruiting strategies used in a longitudinal family study with respect to their enrolment yield and cost effectiveness. Results may help other research groups to optimize their recruitment strategies. Methods: We applied different recruitment strategies to acquire families with children aged 6 to 47 months and at least one parent with obesity (risk group) or two parents of normal weight (control group) for a longitudinal noninterventional study. Based on four main strategies-via media, kindergartens, health professionals and focusing on the community-we examined 15 different subcategories of strategies. Based on enrolment yield and relative costs (e.g., material expenses, staff time) we analyzed the effectiveness of each recruitment strategy. Results: Following different recruitment approaches, 685 families contacted us; 26% (n = 178) of these met the inclusion criteria. Of the four main strategies, the community-focused strategy was the most successful one (accounting for 36.5% of the sample) followed by contacts with kindergartens (accounting for 28.1% of the sample). Of the subcategories, two strategies were outstanding: Posters (community-focused strategies), and recruitment via kindergartens using phone contacts rather than emailing. Only a small number of participants were recruited via announcements in newspapers (lower cost strategy), advertisements on public transport or face-to-face recruitment at various places (higher cost strategies). Conclusions: Results revealed that only a combination of different active and passive methods and approaches led to a sufficient sample size. In this study, recruitment via posters and contacting kindergartens on the phone produced the highest numbers of participants (high enrolment yield) at moderate costs.
The National Children's Study: Recruitment Outcomes Using the Provider-Based Recruitment Approach
Pediatrics, 2016
In 2009, the National Children's Study (NCS) Vanguard Study tested the feasibility of household-based recruitment and participant enrollment using a birth-rate probability sample. In 2010, the NCS Program Office launched 3 additional recruitment approaches. We tested whether provider-based recruitment could improve recruitment outcomes compared with household-based recruitment. The NCS aimed to recruit 18- to 49-year-old women who were pregnant or at risk for becoming pregnant who lived in designated geographic segments within primary sampling units, generally counties. Using provider-based recruitment, 10 study centers engaged providers to enroll eligible participants at their practice. Recruitment models used different levels of provider engagement (full, intermediate, information-only). The percentage of eligible women per county ranged from 1.5% to 57.3%. Across the centers, 3371 potential participants were approached for screening, 3459 (92%) were screened and 1479 were eli...
Mental Health & Prevention, 2015
Evaluation of early childcare and education (ECCE) programs faces the problem that families who would have a high need for prevention do often not participate in such programs. Moreover, in intervention studies, regular assessments for research purposes and the lack of intervention in the control group reduce participation. Against this background we present a concept for the recruitment of families in psychosocial at-risk situations in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) using the example of the ZEPPELIN 0-3 project. Results show that the projected number of 252 recruited families was reached and that randomization was successful regarding crucial characteristics.
BMC Public Health, 2013
Background: In recent decades, parents have been involved in programs that aim to improve parenting style and reduce child behavior problems. Research of preventive parenting programs has shown that these interventions generally have a positive influence on both parents and children. However, to our knowledge there is a gap in the scientific literature when it comes to randomized controlled trials of brief, manual-based structured programs which address general parenting among the population, and focus on promoting health. A four-session universal health promotion parent group program named All Children in Focus was developed. It aims at promoting parental competence and children's positive development with the parent-child relationship as the target. There is currently no randomized controlled trial existing of the program. Methods/Design: A prospective multicenter randomized wait-list controlled trial is being conducted. Approximately 600 parents with children ranging in age from 3-12 years have been recruited in eleven municipalities and city districts in the County of Stockholm, Sweden. Parents are randomized at baseline to an intervention group, which receives the program directly, or to a waiting-list control group, which participates in the program six months later. Changes in parenting and child health and development are assessed with measures immediately post-intervention and six months after the baseline. Observations of a minor group of parents and children are conducted to explore possible relations between parental reports and observed behaviors, as well as changes in the interaction between parent and child. Further, data collected within the evaluation will also be applied to evaluate the possible cost-effectiveness of the program. Discussion: This paper describes a study protocol of a randomized controlled trial. Except for the quantitative outcome measures to evaluate the effectiveness of All Children in Focus, this protocol also describes health economic and qualitative analyses to deepen the knowledge of the program. We further discuss some issues regarding the implementation of the program in municipalities and city districts.
The Experience of Direct Outreach Recruitment in the National Children's Study
Pediatrics, 2016
Few studies have reported the outcome of direct outreach methods for recruitment of research participants in population-based samples. We describe the relationship of outreach strategies that are tailored to specific community factors to recruitment and consent outcomes in 10 National Children's Study direct outreach study locations (all were single counties). Each study center collected data from a target population of women who resided in selected county segments that were sampled based on a geographic area probability sampling design. Based on county characteristics of the 10 study locations, each study center used site-specific marketing approaches (direct mail, mass media, provider referrals, social networking) to recruit study participants. Recruitment success was measured by the number of recruited women as well as by a qualitative assessment of the effectiveness of various recruitment methods. The number of women who consented varied from 67 to 792. The majority of women...
Recruitment of hard to contact, hard to engage child populations in clinics and schools
Applied Nursing Research, 2018
Recruiting children with chronic disease or subgroups of children (low income, obese, specific ages, types of cancer) from clinics and schools for research studies may be particularly difficult. While some have deemed such groups as hard to reach, these groups may be more accurately described as either hard to contact or hard to engage. This is not because children are unknown to the school or clinic but because the researcher's ability to communicate directly with targeted children prior to enrollment is limited. The purpose of this paper is to describe barriers and possible strategies for recruiting hard to contact or hard to engage subgroups of children. Barriers identified in recruiting these children were: naïve to research, communication style and technology, parent/guardian burden, parental conditions and concerns, child stressors and distractions, and research setting. Possible strategies include: pre-consent education, information sheets about study, identifying preferred method of communication, meaningful and appropriate incentives, coordinating recruitment visit with regularly scheduled clinic appointments or school schedule, demonstrating research equipment, informing staff about research study, negotiating creatively for space for research, and emphasizing confidentiality of data. Consideration of barriers to recruitment and utilization of strategies to counteract these barriers is critical to the success of a study involving subgroups of children.
Experiences of parents whose children participated in a longitudinal follow‐up study
Health Expectations
Background: Long-term follow-up is necessary to understand the impact of perinatal interventions. Exploring parents' motives and experiences in consenting to their children taking part in longitudinal studies and understanding what outcomes are important to families may enhance participation and mitigate the loss to follow-up. As existing evidence is largely based on investigators' perspectives using Western samples, the present pilot study explored parents' perspectives in a multicultural New Zealand context. Methods: Data were generated using semi-structured interviews with parents whose children had participated in a longitudinal study after neonatal recruitment. Parents' experiences of being part of the study were analysed thematically using an inductive approach. Results: Parents (n = 16) were generally happy with the outcomes measured. Additionally, parents were interested in lifelong goals such as the impact of parental diabetes. We identified three themes: (1) Facilitators: Research participation was aided by motives and parent and research characteristics such as wishing to help others and straightforward recruitment; (2) Barriers: A hesitancy to participate was due to technical and clinical research aspects, participation burden and cultural barriers, such as complex wording, time commitment and nonindigenous research and (3) Benefits: Children and parents experienced advantages such as the opportunity for education. Conclusions: Parents reported positive experiences and described the unexpected benefit of increasing families' health knowledge through participation. Improvements for current follow-up studies were identified. Different ethnicities reported different experiences and perspectives, which warrants ongoing research, particularly with indigenous research participants.
R How are European birth-cohort studies engaging and consulting with young cohort members?
Background: Birth cohort studies, where parents consent for their child to be enrolled in a longitudinal study prior to or soon after birth, are a powerful study design in epidemiology and developmental research. Participation often continues into adulthood. Where participants are enrolled as infants, provision should be made for consent, consultation and involvement in study design as they age. This study aims to audit and describe the extent and types of consultation and engagement currently used in birth cohorts in Europe. Methods: Seventy study groups (representing 84 cohorts) were contacted to ask about their practice in engaging and involving study members. Information was gathered from study websites and publications, 15 cohorts provided additional information via email and 17 cohorts were interviewed over the phone. Results: The cohorts identified confirm the growth of this study design, with more than half beginning since 1990, and 4 since 2011. Most studies maintain a website open to the general public, although many are written for the scientific community only. Five studies have web pages specifically for young cohort members and one study provides a dedicated page for fathers. Cohorts send newsletters, cards, and summaries of findings to participants to stay in touch. Six cohorts use Facebook for this purpose. Five cohorts provide feedback opportunities for participants after completing a round of data collection. We know of just 8 cohorts who have a mechanism for consulting with parents and 3 a mechanism for consulting with young people themselves, although these were 'one off' consultations for some groups. Barriers to further consultation with cohort members were: concerns about impact on quality of research, ethical constraints, resource limitations, lack of importance, and previous adverse experiences.