In fact, researchers should be prepared to spend most of their time on the front end of their study, identifying and recruiting participants and designing measurement tools appropriate for the population, said Laurie Roehrich, PhD, of Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, in a symposium on underserved populations at APA s 1998 Annual Convention. The session was part of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Miniconvention and was a tutorial for researchers trying to include more women and ethnic minorities in their studies. Roehrich and Sharon Wilsnack, PhD, of the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, shared their experience recruiting, retaining and studying special populations in studies of addiction. A stigma of addiction exists in many communities so people may be afraid to enter a study for fear of being exposed. Many special populations are outside of the health-care system and so difficult to locate.
Some populations have little or no access to transportation to get to a study site.
Women may need childcare in order to participate in a study. Some immigrant and poverty populations may have poor language or reading skills. Once researchers understand the barriers to study participation, they must design strategies to recruit and retain participants. Wilsnack and her colleagues have had success recruiting and retaining women in a 20-year study of women s drinking. And she credits her success to her willingness to think of her study participants as partners.