Recruitment and Retention of Culturally Diverse Older Adults into Aging Research: Investigation Planning to Explore Intergenerational Influence

AbstractBackgroundAfrican American [AA], Latino/Hispanic [LH], and Caribbean [CN]) older adults remain underrepresented in aging clinical research, leading to a knowledge gap regarding best treatments for these populations. Studies have found that culturally diverse older adults often consult family members when making healthcare treatment decisions. However, family members’ involvement when recruiting AA, LH and CN populations into health research studies is relatively unexplored as a potential recruitment strategy. The overall purpose of this research is to understand how intergenerational influence (IGI) – defined as the influence of one generation on another in terms of the transfer of skills, attitudes, preferences, values, and behaviors – can be leveraged to recruit and retain culturally diverse older adults into aging research.MethodsSpecific aims are to 1) explore IGI among 360 AA, CN and LH adults 2) test messages in key markets and 3) enroll 3,000 AA, CN and LH adults > 65 into a statewide health registry. To start, we established the infrastructure to conduct this research: organize a tri‐institutional team developing materials to conduct mixed methods (focus group guides; surveys) to answer specific aim 1; establish a statewide governing council; recruit a qualitative team; and obtain approval from the lead Institution’s Ethics Review Board.ResultOur tri‐institutional team comprises researchers from various disciplines who created focus group guides, survey materials, and online tools for use with focus group participants (Specific Aim 1). We have also established the Florida Statewide Governance Aging (FL‐SAGE) Council consisting of 25‐members throughout Florida, who will inform all aspects of this research. We have also recruited 12 facilitators who have conducted qualitative work with our populations of focus, AA, CN and LH older adults. Another aspect of this tri‐institutional collaboration is the ability to achieve ethics approval from one institution, allowing for more concise monitoring.ConclusionWe hope to demonstrate that our IGI model can be leveraged as an additional strategy to recruit and retain culturally diverse older adults into aging research. Before that, we recognize the significance of establishing a sound infrastructure to conduct this work. We hope our findings will assist other researchers working with diverse populations.