Strategies for recruiting Hispanic women into a prospective cohort study of modifiable risk factors for gestational diabetes mellitus

The study was conducted in the ambulatory obstetrical practices of Baystate Medical Center located in a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse city in Massachusetts. The study employed a range of strategies to recruit Hispanic women based on a review of the literature as well as prior experience with the study population.Over a period of 32 months, a total of 851 Hispanic prenatal care patients were recruited. Among eligible women, 52.4% agreed to participate. Participants were young (70% <25 years), with low levels of education, and on public health insurance (81.5%); 88% were unmarried. Study design features such as use of bilingual recruiters, a flexible recruitment process, training recruiters to be culturally sensitive, use of culturally tailored materials, prescreening participants, participant compensation, seeking the cooperation of clinic staff, and continuous monitoring of recruitment goals emerged as important issues influencing recruitment.Findings suggest that investigators can successfully recruit pregnant women from ethnic minority groups of low socioeconomic status into observational studies. The study provides culturally appropriate recruitment strategies useful for practice-based settings recruiting Hispanic research participation.Hispanic women are projected to have the highest birthrates for any minority group in the United States by the year 2009[1] and by 2030, are expected to be the largest minority group in the United States[2]. Despite the increase in population growth, substantial health disparities exist between Hispanic and non-Hispanic whites. Hispanic women have two to four times the risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) compared with non-Hispanic white women[3]. Important disparities also exist between the heterogeneous Latina subgroups. Hispanic women of Puerto Rican descent have an elevated risk of low birth weight and poor neonatal health outcomes as compared to other Hispanic groups [4-7]. Despite the increasing