Strategies to Recruit Native American/American Indian/Alaska Native Adolescents and Emerging Adults Into Health Studies: A Systematic Review

American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) adolescents and emerging adults' health has been understudied, despite pressing inequities beginning at this critical developmental period when lifelong health behaviors and chronic disease often emerge. Recruitment challenges are often described as a reason for underrepresentation of this population in health research. This paper systematically reviews research on recruitment approaches targeting AI/AN adolescents and emerging adults. We conducted a systematic review of the literature in June 2025. Inclusion criteria were articles focusing on recruitment of AI/AN participants ages 10 to 29 years into health research studies with >3 sentences on recruitment. Search generated 793 nonduplicate peer-reviewed articles. Sixteen met inclusion criteria. Identified recruitment strategies focused on relational work, decreasing recognition and participation barriers, and showing respect for culture and autonomy. Relational recruitment methods are popular and effective in recruiting AI/AN adolescents and emerging adults from a variety of settings and regions to health studies.