Culturally sensitive approaches to recruitment and retention of Hispanics in the national lung screening trial.

Hispanics are underrepresented in medical research. At the National Lung Screening Trial's University of Colorado Denver screening center, traditional recruitment methods resulted in enrollment of few Hispanics. In response, the center adopted culturally sensitive recruitment techniques, including use of carefully-crafted bilingual materials. Bilingual interviewers were hired, and persons familiar with culture and language of groups of different Hispanic origin were consulted. Representation of Hispanics among participants enrolled at the Colorado center increased nearly threefold, from 3.3 to 9.4 %, after adoption of these methods. In this manuscript, we report on the specialized recruitment methods that were developed and how they were used to address known barriers to Hispanic recruitment.

Recruitment methods employed in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial.

BACKGROUND: The Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (PLCO) is a US National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate whether certain screening tests reduce mortality from prostate, lung, colorectal, and ovarian cancer. To obtain adequate statistical power, it was necessary to enroll over 150,000 healthy volunteers. Recruitment began in 1993 and ended in 2001. PURPOSE: Our goal is to evaluate the success of recruitment methods employed by the 10 PLCO screening centers. We also provide estimates of recruitment yield and cost for our most successful strategy, direct mail. METHODS: Each screening center selected its own methods of recruitment. Methods changed throughout the recruitment period as needed. For this manuscript, representatives from each screening center provided information on methods utilized and their success. RESULTS: In the United States between 1993 and 2001, ten screening centers enrolled 154,934 study participants. Based on participant self-report, an estimated 95% of individuals were recruited by direct mail. Overall, enrollment yield for direct mail was 1.0%. Individual center enrollment yield ranged from 0.7% to 3.8%. Cost per enrolled participant was $9.64-35.38 for direct mail, excluding personnel costs. LIMITATIONS: Numeric data on recruitment processes were not kept consistently at individual screening centers. Numeric data in this manuscript are based on the experiences of 5 of the 10 centers. CONCLUSIONS: Direct mail, using rosters of names and addresses from profit and not-for-profit (including government) organizations, was the most successful and most often used recruitment method. Other recruitment strategies, such as community outreach and use of mass media, can be an important adjunct to direct mail in recruiting minority populations.

Enrollment of racial and ethnic minorities in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial.

BACKGROUND: Minority populations in the United States, especially blacks and Hispanics, are generally underrepresented among participants in clinical trials. Here, we report the experience of enrolling ethnic minorities in a large cancer screening trial. METHODS: The Prostate, Colorectal, Lung and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial is a multicenter randomized trial designed to evaluate the effectiveness of screening for the PLCO cancers. Subjects were recruited at 10 U.S. centers between 1993 and 2001. One screening center had a major special recruitment effort for blacks and another center had a major special recruitment effort for Hispanics. RESULTS: Among almost 155,000 subjects enrolled in PLCO, minority enrollment was as follows: black (5.0%), Hispanic (1.8%) and Asian (3.6%). This compares to an age-eligible population in the combined catchment areas of the PLCO centers that was 14.0% black, 2.9% Hispanic and 5.4% Asian, and an age-eligible population across the U.S. that was 9.5% black, 6.5% Hispanic and 3.0% Asian. About half (45%) of Hispanics were recruited at the center with the special Hispanic recruitment effort. Seventy percent of blacks were recruited at two centers; the one with the major special recruitment effort and a center in Detroit whose catchment area was 20% black among age-eligibles. Blacks, Hispanics and (non-Hispanic) whites were all more highly educated, less likely to currently smoke and more likely to get regular exercise than their counterparts in the general population. CONCLUSION: Significant efforts were made to recruit racial/ ethnic minorities into PLCO, and these efforts resulted in enrollment levels that were comparable to those seen in many recent cancer screening or prevention trials. Blacks and Hispanics were nonetheless underrepresented in PLCO compared to their levels among age-eligibles in the overall U.S. population or in the aggregate PLCO catchment areas.

Latino recruitment to cancer prevention/screening trials in the Southwest: setting a research agenda.

Examples of cancer prevention and screening trials in the Southwest are reviewed as a platform for highlighting gaps in research on Latino recruitment. Three trials are described, using "message/source/channel" categories as a framework. Each trial engaged community members to facilitate recruitment and developed tailored strategies to meet challenges emerging after recruitment began. Although we affirm that culturally relevant messages, community member referral networks, and adjustment to community realities seem important to Latino recruitment, current anecdotal and research findings do not allow evidence-based recommendations to be made. We suggest a research agenda to further illuminate critical factors for successful Latino recruitment.