Comparing Strategies for Recruiting Small, Low-Wage Worksites for Community-Based Health Promotion Research

BACKGROUND

HealthLinks is a workplace health promotion program developed in partnership with the American Cancer Society. It delivers a package of evidence-based interventions and implementation support to small worksites in low-wage industries. As part of a randomized, controlled trial of HealthLinks, we studied approaches to recruiting these worksites.

AIMS

This study aims to guide future recruitment for community-based worksite health promotion interventions by comparing three approaches, including leveraging relationships with community partners.

METHOD

We recruited 78 small, low-wage worksites in King County, Washington, to participate in the trial via three approaches: phone calls to companies on a purchased list ("cold"), phone calls to a list of eligible companies provided by a health insurer ("lukewarm"), and personal referrals from local health insurers and brokers ("warm"). Eligible and interested worksites received an in-person visit from researchers and completed additional steps to enroll.

RESULTS

Of the worksites screened and deemed eligible, 32% of the "cold" worksites enrolled in HealthLinks, as did 48% and 60%, respectively, of the "lukewarm" and "warm" worksites. Compared with "warm" worksites, "cold" worksites were twice as likely to be ineligible.

DISCUSSION

Two distinct factors help explain why "warmer" worksites were more likely to enroll in HealthLinks. First, eligibility was significantly higher among warmer referrals. Second, most of the warm-referred worksites eligible for the study agreed to meet in person with the project team to hear more about the project.

CONCLUSIONS

"Warmer" recruitment approaches yielded higher recruitment. Leveraging relationships with community partners can help researchers identify and successfully recruit small, low-wage worksites.

Recruiting and Surveying Catholic Parishes for Cancer Control Initiatives: Lessons Learned From the CRUZA Implementation Study

BACKGROUND

We describe activities undertaken to conduct organizational surveys among faith-based organizations in Massachusetts as part of a larger study designed to promote parish-based cancer control programs for Latinos.

METHOD

Catholic parishes located in Massachusetts that provided Spanish-language mass were eligible for study participation. Parishes were identified through diocesan records and online directories. Prior to parish recruitment, we implemented a variety of activities to gain support from Catholic leaders at the diocesan level. We then recruited individual parishes to complete a four-part organizational survey, which assessed (A) parish leadership, (B) financial resources, (C) involvement in Hispanic Ministry, and (D) health and social service offerings. Our goal was to administer each survey component to a parish representatives who could best provide an organizational perspective on the content of each component (e.g., A = pastors, B = business managers, C = Hispanic Ministry leaders, and D = parish nurse or health ministry leader). Here, we present descriptive statistics on recruitment and survey administration processes.

RESULTS

Seventy-five percent of eligible parishes responded to the survey and of these, 92% completed all four components. Completed four-part surveys required an average of 16.6 contact attempts. There were an average of 2.1 respondents per site. Pastoral staff were the most frequent respondents (79%), but they also required the most contact attempts (M = 9.3, range = 1-27). While most interviews were completed by phone (71%), one quarter were completed during in-person site visits.

CONCLUSIONS

We achieved a high survey completion rate among organizational representatives. Our lessons learned may inform efforts to engage and survey faith-based organizations for public health efforts.