Improving Health Communication and Marketing Practices for Recruiting Dyads In An African-American, Faith-Based Community: Lessons Learned From a Community-Academic-Clinical Team

 

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis:Prostate cancer (PrCA) is the most commonly diagnosed non-skin cancer among men.  Both incidence and mortality from PrCA are significantly higher in African-American (AA) men compared with European-American (EA) men. In South Carolina this cancer disparity is 50% more extreme than in the country as a whole (i.e., about 80% higher in AA than EA South Carolinians). While AAs are more likely to develop and die from cancer than all other racial/ethnic groups, they have low rates of participation in cancer research, particularly in clinical trials.  Despite federal mandates to include both women and racial/ethnic minorities in clinical trials research, AAs have generally represented less than 10% of participants in NCI-sponsored cancer prevention and treatment trials in the U.S. The Selenium and Vitamin Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) reported the highest proportion of AA male participants to date at 15%, and attributed this accomplishment largely to intensive recruitment efforts, which included close involvement of leaders from national AA organizations and targeting sites with high potential for AA recruitment, including South Carolina. A collaborative approach to developing and conducting PrCA research and education through community-academic-clinical partnerships has been strongly recommended.  Our objective is to describe the comprehensive recruitment and marketing efforts of Community-Academic-Clinical partners for a pilot PrCA education project with AA men and women (spouses/ family members) in the South that was designed to address the discordance between high rates of PrCA mortality and limited participation in cancer education and research. 

Methods and Results (informing the conceptual analysis): Guided by Vesey's framework on recruitment and retention of minority groups in research, recruitment and marketing strategies were selected and implemented following multiple brainstorming sessions with partners with established community relationships.  Strategies included conceptualization, planning, and development of the recruitment plan and promotional materials in collaboration with community partners; recruitment of study sample with community partners; developing and conducting culturally appropriate education sessions and pre/post-education assessments; and reporting of findings to the community and engaging the community and community partners in planning for future research. Interpersonal and media-based recruitment was conducted over two months to recruit 81 participants.  This included: education/promotion at health fairs, churches, community meetings, and medical/oncology-related appointments; radio promotion on stations with a large number of AA listeners; messages on AA community organization and healthcare system websites/listservs; flyer distribution; word of mouth.  Recruitment of participants was accomplished through a team effort by the community-academic-clinical team and facilitated through a web-based program, Google Docs^TM . Recruitment challenges to be discussed included recruiting dyads (i.e., AA men and women), recruiting from afar, and existing priorities and health issues of participants. Recruitment activities and timeline will be presented.

Conclusions: and

Implications for research and/or practice:Multiple, culturally-appropriate strategies are recommended for the recruitment and retention of AA men and women for PrCA education. These strategies include: (1) being flexible with scheduling and implementation of research (2) promoting a concluding celebration attended by several community, legislature, and hospital spokespeople and (3) creating a formalized advisory council to assist with planning and implementation of educational programs and community engagement in research.