ENGAGEMENT OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN FAMILIES IN RESEARCH ON CHRONIC ILLNESS - A MULTISYSTEM RECRUITMENT APPROACH

Our multisystem approach addressed the recruitment of African American families with a chronically, physically ill member. The approach focu sed on, the social transactions between the family, the healthcare tea m, and the research staff, and the influence of these transactions on family recruitment. This multisystem approach included three core stra tegies: defining the membership of families in a culturally appropriat e fashion and engaging those members; engaging the healthcare team; an d building and maintaining the shills and morale of the research staff . A description of a longitudinal family health study and potential so urces of recruitment biases is provided. Descriptive and bivariate ana lyses examined the effectiveness of the recruitment approach. A focus group explored the reciprocal process of family protectiveness that bo th facilitated and hindered family recruitment and the research staffs alliance with families and the dialysis staff. Discussion focuses on, the family health study's recruitment rate, sampling biases, and meth ods for improving the effectiveness of the multisystem recruitment app roach.