Minority Participants Crucial to Effective
Aging Studies
July 25, 2011--A new supplemental issue of The
Gerontologist urges
aging researchers to include representative
samples of ethnically diverse populations in
their work.
The publication also identifies research
priorities for moving the science of
recruitment and retention forward, in
addition to providing several strategies
that scholars can employ in their work.
The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that
non-white minorities will make up 42 percent
of the country’s 65-and-over population by
2050.
“The cultural-historical background and
sociopolitical conditions of each diverse
group poses unique challenges in developing
successful recruitment and retention methods
and strategies,” stated Peggye
Dilworth-Anderson, PhD, a former president
of The
Gerontological Society of America,
in the issue’s introduction.
“This critical collection of articles
demonstrates important theoretical and
conceptual frameworks that seek to address
the shortcomings of previous models of using
diverse populations.”
The journal also demonstrates that
understanding key components of cultural
distinctions — such as values and beliefs,
community cohesion, and collective history —
has proven to be instrumental in reaching
out to these diverse groups.
Included are several reports that detail the
costs of minority recruitment and retention,
which can be used to provide a blueprint for
future studies.
The issue concludes with a summary of four
recommendations for furthering the inclusion
of ethnically diverse populations in aging
research.
Authors Anna M. Nápoles, PhD, MPH, and Letha
A. Chadiha, PhD, MSW, suggest that:
investigators track and report enrollment
rates stratified by race/ethnicity, related
challenges, and solutions; investigators
conduct nested studies of the effectiveness
of recruitment or retention within other
health research studies; funding opportunity
announcements for primary data collection
studies include a request for investigators
to incorporate a nested study that compares
the effectiveness of multiple methods of
recruitment and/or retention, especially
studies that include underrepresented
groups; and funding agencies appropriate
targeted funding to investigate specific
methodologically challenging recruitment
issues, e.g., identifying alternative
incentives for recruiting groups that have
been discriminated against or that are
impoverished in longitudinal cohort studies
that may have limited funding to pay
monetary incentives to participants.
The supplement, “The
Science of Recruitment and Retention Among
Ethnically Diverse Older Adults,”
was supported by the National Institute on
Aging (NIA) and the NIA Resource Centers for
Minority Aging Research.
