RECRUITING HARD-TO-REACH SUBJECTS - IS IT WORTH THE EFFORT

Little information is available on the utility of spending resources t o recruit hard-to-reach subjects. In particular, the compliance of suc h subjects with study protocols and visit schedules has not been docum ented. We present recruitment data from a two-phase survey of asthma p revalence in which a subset of respondents to a brief screening survey was recruited to attend a 90-min clinic visit. Although 39% of phase I subjects responding to initial contact attempts participated in the second phase of the study, this dropped to 12% among those responding to the sixth contact attempt (a phone follow-up). In studies in which the representatives of the sample is not of paramount importance, we s ee little benefit in aggressively seeking to recruit hard-to-reach sub jects.