ISSUES OF RECRUITMENT, RETENTION, AND COMPLIANCE IN COMMUNITY-BASED CLINICAL-TRIALS WITH TRADITIONALLY UNDERSERVED POPULATIONS

Site-specific sociodemographic recruitment, retention, and compliance (RRC) data were solicited at two points in time from the 18 National I nstitutes of Health-funded Community Programs for Clinical Research on AIDS (CPCRA). Based on their experiences delivering primary care to h uman immunodeficiency virus-infected individuals, nurses at each site identified organizational and client-centered factors functioning as b arriers to protocol participation. In addition, the clinicians describ ed the nature, frequency, and relative success of strategies used to e nhance recruitment, retention, and protocol compliance. CPCRA units wh ere nurses had clearly identified RRC barriers related to protocol des ign also were the sites that had accrued the most research participant s. This study suggests that as the CPCRA units evolve, the most succes sful programs will be those in which the clinical and research staff c an identify and develop innovative strategies that will successfully o vercome RRC barriers.