Recruiting from the community: lessons learned from the diabetes care for older adults project

Recruitment methods for enrolling community-based older adults into a study of intensive diabetes management are presented. Analysis of a three-step enrollment procedure revealed that persons who declined at the first step were slightly older and lived farther away from the study site than persons who continued in the enrollment process. Persons who declined cited distance from clinic, some aspect of the study protocol, or health/personal problems as major barriers to involvement. Recruitment strategies were compared, revealing that press releases and newspaper advertisements were the most effective strategies for recruiting eligible participants. Methods such as those described here should help to facilitate future recruitment efforts with community-based older adults.