Recruiting African-American Women to Community-Based Health Promotion Research

The Eating and Exercising for a Cancer-free Life (EECL) pilot study was conducted in 1994 to provide data for a planned, community-based, culturally tailored, randomized intervention trial that was subsequently funded to start in late 1996. Because high attrition rates have generally precluded long-term data collection in the few reported illness prevention studies of African-American women, l a middle class segment of the population has been targeted for the full-scale intervention. Targeting the middle class not only increases the likelihood of longterm study adherence, ~ but also increases comparability of findings in this study with those reported on predominantly middle class white populations. This paper describes the recruitment process and characteristics of the sample recruited for the pilot study. The relationship between recruitment strategy and subsample characteristics is discussed. The EECL pilot study was designed, in part, to: (1) pretest participant recruitment strategies; and (2) identify psychosocial correlates of obesity and leanness among women recruited.