Participant Recruitment and Retention in Intervention and Evaluation Research

This practical "how to" guide integrates a comprehensive, interdisciplinary review of literature, alongside a wealth of the authors' combined research experience, into a framework for behavioral health and other investigators concerned with successful participant recruitment and retention in intervention and evaluation research studies. The content applies across disciplines, provides numerous real-world and hypothetical examples, analyzes complex issues and ethical concerns, and provides investigators with concrete, practical tools for planning, budgeting, assessing, engaging in, analyzing, and reporting their studies' participant recruitment and retention efforts. The book's focus is on application to intervention and evaluation research, and the authors present a great deal of information of contemporary relevance, including demonstrating an awareness of the opportunities and limitations of engaging research participants in an electronic age. In these ways, Participant Recruitment and Retention in Intervention and Evaluation Research stands out from the fragmented published literature concerning participant recruitment and retention and from research methodology textbooks, many of which dedicate very little attention to the practical issues involved in successfully recruiting and retaining study participants in studies of these types.

Audrey Begun, PhD, MSW, is Professor in the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University. She has engaged in behavioral health intervention and evaluation research throughout her professional career, with a particular emphasis on strategies to address substance use disorders, educating professionals to engage in substance-related interventions and research, and preventing violence against women. While at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (1987-2009), she was a Center Scientist and part of the leadership team in the Center for Addiction and Behavioral Health Research, where she worked closely with the book's co-authors. Since joining the faculty at The Ohio State University (2009), she has continued her line of research emphasizing the promotion of successful community reintegration for men and women following their release from incarceration, efforts to empower mothers to establish smoke-free home environments for their infants and young children, and professional education strategies related to intervening with and conducting research about substance use disorders.

Lisa Berger, PhD, MSW, is Associate Professor in the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare's Department of Social Work at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has been involved in behavioral health intervention research and training, primarily in the area of alcohol misuse, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee since 1998. Over the course of these years, she has served in almost every intervention research role from Assistant Researcher to Principal Investigator. In addition to actively performing and directing participant recruitment and retention activities, Dr. Berger has previously written and trained on these topics. Presently, Dr. Berger is involved in several Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment for Substance Misuse training and research projects.

Dr. Laura Otto-Salaj, PhD, MA, is Associate Professor in the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare's Department of Social Work at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has been conducting intervention outcome research since 1994, including RCTs of HIV prevention interventions with urban populations, and has been involved in numerous grants involving assessment of research outcomes. She has been PI or Co-I on many NIH-funded studies, and her community-based research has focused on development and evaluation of interventions to address risk behaviors in inner-city, low-income populations. Her most recent research includes a prospective study on the interaction of sexual risk behavior, substance use, and violence among low-income African American women.