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Planning for Recruitment
The information you learn from your formative research and conversations with stakeholder partners can help you design your registry in a way that will promote participation. You should design recruitment and enrollment processes that address the barriers and concerns of potential participants and speak to factors that may motivate them to join. In general, you should strive to make it easy for participants to enroll.
For example:
- If you find that transportation is a barrier for an in-person enrollment visit, you might explore online or phone enrollment processes, providing transportation or reimbursing transportation costs, or conducting enrollment visits at a community organization.
- If you find that scheduling is a barrier for an in-person enrollment visit, you might explore offering evening or weekend appointments, providing childcare, or providing options to enroll online.
- If you find that altruism is a motivating factor, you might design recruitment materials that emphasize the potential to help others through participating in research
UNC-Chapel Hill Tips and Tricks: Recruitment
- For advice on recruitment, request a consultation from NC TraCS’ Recruitment Services
- For advice on working with stakeholders or engaging with potential participants, request a consultation from NC TraCS’ Community and Stakeholder Engagement
- To learn about contacting potential participants through MyUNCChart, request a consultation from NC TraCS’ Biomedical Informatics Services
- List your registry on the Research for Me website
Looking for Literature?
Below are examples of studies assessing various recruitment methods among different populations and registry topics:
- Evaluation of participant recruitment methods to a rare disease online registry (2014)
- Building a registry of research volunteers among older urban African Americans: recruitment processes and outcomes from a community-based partnership (2011)
- Testing three different cancer genetics registry recruitment methods with Hispanic cancer patients and their family members previously registered in local cancer registries in Texas (2008)
- Active recruitment increased enrollment in a hereditary cancer registry (2004)
- Effect of different recruitment sources on the composition of a bipolar disorder case registry (2000)
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Recruiting Diverse Populations
Health disparities exist for many different health conditions 1 and response to treatment can vary among different groups of people by characteristics such as race/ethnicity and sex.2, 3, 4 Diversity among research participants is important, because studies with diverse participants can be applied to wider populations and have greater ability to benefit the general public.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report — United States, 2013. MMWR 2013;62(Suppl 3).
Liu, K. A., & Mager, N. A. D. (2016). Women’s involvement in clinical trials: historical perspective and future implications. Pharmacy Practice, 14(1), 708.
Oh SS, Galanter J, Thakur N, Pino-Yanes M, Barcelo NE, et al. (2015) Diversity in Clinical and Biomedical Research: A Promise Yet to Be Fulfilled. PLOS Medicine 12(12): e1001918.
Bichell, RE (2016). Clinical Trails Still Don’t Reflect the Diversity of America. National Public Radio (NPR).
Soldin, O., & Mattison, D. (2009). Sex Differences in Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics. Clinical Pharmacokinetics, 48(3), 143–157.
Despite the fact that United States federally funded research is required to emphasize including women and minorities as research participants (for more information, see NIH policy implementation page), women and racial/ethnic minorities continue to be under-represented2, 5.
Researchers can be proactive by considering diversity when planning their recruitment process, and continuing to evaluate the diversity of participants throughout enrollment. Remember that in addition to race, ethnicity, and sex, diversity encompasses other characteristics including gender, age, socioeconomic status, and geography.
Populations that are underrepresented among registry participants may require targeted recruitment efforts. Strategies to consider for recruiting underrepresented populations include:
- Hiring research staff who reflect the characteristics of the population
- Ensuring research staff are fluent in languages spoken by the population
- Partnering with stakeholders, such as community organizations, that represent or serve the population
- Working with stakeholders to develop culturally and linguistically relevant study materials
- Conducting formative research with individuals from the population
- Providing training to research staff to raise awareness about implicit bias and promote cultural competency
Relevant Resources: Recruiting Diverse Participants
- The Ohio State University Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity: Understanding Implicit Bias
- National Institutes of Health (NIH): Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Participants in Research Involving Human Subjects – Policy Implementation Page
- NIH National Institute on Aging: Recruiting Older Adults into Research Toolkit
- NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health: How to Engage, Recruit, and Retain Women in Clinical Research
- National Initiative for Minority Involvement in Neurological Clinical Trials: Clinical Trial Toolkits
- Project Implicit: Implicit Bias Tests
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Recruitment Strategies
Recruitment strategies should be tailored to your registry and the people you are trying to recruit. In other words, your formative work and conversations with stakeholders should guide your selection of recruitment strategies.
Recruitment Reminders
- Providing a monetary incentive (i.e., cash or gift card) to compensate participants for their time and effort can help promote enrollment.
- Recruitment is a research activity; remember to obtain IRB approval before starting the recruitment process. Recruitment materials (e.g., posters, email messages, or social media ads) also need IRB approval.
Type of Strategy Examples Clinic or hospital-based - Identifying potential participants via medical records or provider referral and contacting them to invite them to participate
- Conducting in-person recruitment at clinics or hospitals
- Asking healthcare providers to share information about the registry with potential participants
- Posting flyers or electronic advertisements in clinics or hospitals
Mail and phone recruitment - Sending recruitment letters, post cards, or brochures to potential participants
- Calling potential participants via phone as a follow-up to a mailed recruitment letter, or without prior mailing if institutional policy allows
Multi-media recruitment methods - Developing TV and radio ads
- Disseminating information via social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter)
- Utilizing email listservs at your institution or those targeting your population of interest
- Posting your study on research websites such as Research for Me (at UNC) or ResearchMatch.org, or non-research websites, such as Craigslist
- Developing a study website and including a link to the website on other recruitment materials
Community-based - Tabling at health fairs or other community events
- Partnering with community organizations to share information about the project with their constituents (e.g., recruiting at an event, sharing information via their email listserv)
- Posting flyers in the community
Example of Follow-Up Communication Methods Examples Clinic or hospital-based - Identifying potential participants via medical records or provider referral and contacting them to invite them to participate
- Conducting in-person recruitment at clinics or hospitals
- Asking healthcare providers to share information about the registry with potential participants
- Posting flyers or electronic advertisements in clinics or hospitals
Mail and phone recruitment - Sending recruitment letters, post cards, or brochures to potential participants
- Calling potential participants via phone as a follow-up to a mailed recruitment letter, or without prior mailing if institutional policy allows
Multi-media recruitment methods - Developing TV and radio ads
- Disseminating information via social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter)
- Utilizing email listservs at your institution or those targeting your population of interest
- Posting your study on research websites such as Research for Me (at UNC) or ResearchMatch.org, or non-research websites, such as Craigslist
- Developing a study website and including a link to the website on other recruitment materials
Community-based - Tabling at health fairs or other community events
- Partnering with community organizations to share information about the project with their constituents (e.g., recruiting at an event, sharing information via their email listserv)
- Posting flyers in the community
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Designing Recruitment Materials
Creating effective recruitment materials is an important part of the recruitment process. Strategies for creating high quality, effective materials include:
- Working with stakeholder partners to design recruitment materials and/or asking them to review your materials for clarity and relevance
- Testing your recruitment materials with your target population, such as holding a focus group to obtain feedback
- Considering health literacy of readers and using plain language in recruitment and other study materials
Relevant Resources: General Recruitment Strategies
- NC TraCS Recruitment & Retention:
- CTSA Trial Innovation Network: Recruitment & Retention Toolkit
- National Institute of Mental Health: Points to Consider about Recruitment and Retention when Preparing a Clinical Research Study
- Southern California CTSI: Tips and Tricks for Successful Research Recruitment: A Toolkit for a Community-Based Approach
Questions? Contact us at nctracs@unc.edu or 919-966-6022.
© 2019-2022. The NC TraCS Institute is the integrated hub of the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Registry Toolkit website is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), National Institutes of Health, through Grant Award Number UL1TR002489. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. | accessibility