Recruitment and retention of research participants is evolving with the changing demographics of the American population, in particular its growing diversity. The cultural-historical background and sociopolitical conditions of each diverse group poses unique challenges in developing successful recruitment and retention methods and strategies. This critical collection of articles demonstrates important theoretical and conceptual frameworks that seek to address the shortcomings of previous models of recruiting diverse populations. Understanding the key components of cultural distinctions, such as values and beliefs, community cohesion, and collective history, has proven to be instrumental in reaching out to these diverse groups. This important strategy has allowed researchers to overcome the barriers that have been fostered in the past and has built the trust necessary to move forward into an inclusive approach to aging research. Not to be overlooked, an important factor to achieving success in recruitment and retention of diverse populations is having access to resources that allow for ongoing connection with research participants.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3106368/

This article provides a discussion on using an inclusive approach to recruitment and retention of diverse groups in Alzheimer research. The discussion begins by framing the issues of diversity and inclusion and reviewing some of the conceptual and theoretical frameworks that can help researchers develop an inclusive approach to research. Next, some specific inclusive strategies that the researchers can use to recruit and retain diverse samples are discussed. Last, ideas on a retooling process that can prepare researchers to use inclusive approaches are discussed. Ultimately, an inclusive approach to recruitment and retention goes beyond diversity and instead, emphasizes shared interest and representation by researchers and participants in the research process.

Read the full article at this link.