 |
The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
|
The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Rebecca Ledsky, MBA1, Amy Bleakley, MPH2, Nancy L. VanDevanter, DrPH3, Susan Middlestadt, PhD1, Renee Cohall, ACSW4, Cheryl Merzel, DrPH5, C. Kevin Malotte, DrPH6, Matthew Hogben, PhD7, and Janet S St. Lawrence, PhD8. (1) Center for Applied Behavioral and Evaluation Research, Academy for Educational Development, 1825 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20009, 202-884-8000, rledsky@aed.org, (2) Division of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia Unviversity, 600 West 168th Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10032, (3) Center for Applied Public Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 W. 168 St, New York, NY 10032, (4) Harlem Health Promotion Center, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 600 West 168th Street, Fourth Floor, New York, NY 10032, (5) Dept of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 W. 168 St., New York, NY 10032, (6) Health Science Department, California State University, Long Beach, 5500 Atherton Street, Suite 400, Long Beach, CA 90815, (7) Behavioral Intervention and Research Branch, DSTDP, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE, Mailstop E-44, Altanta, GA 30333, (8) Behavioral Interventions Research Branch, Division of STD Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE, Mailstop E-44, Atlanta, GA 30333
Background: Adolescents are often at risk for health problems but are difficult to recruit. CBOs, often seen as potential vehicles for recruitment, are themselves often difficult to access. As part of a larger multi-level, community-based intervention project, an intervention involving recruitment of CBOs and adolescents was developed and tested for feasibility in two communities.
Methods: Organizations were initially approached to serve as locations for delivering a three-session workshop; adolescent clients of the organizations would be a partial source of participants. Logistical difficulties led to development of two other approaches: (1) recruiting organizations with large numbers of clients and formal schedules in which to incorporate the workshop, and (2) a technology transfer approach, giving organizations facilitator training, curricula, and materials in exchange for conducting workshops.
Results: Over 15 months, 16 organizations and 313 participants were recruited. At one site the initial recruitment approach, used for 11 months, yielded enrollment of 6 CBOs and 44 participants while technology transfer, used for 4 months, resulted in 3 CBOs and 47 clients participating. The second site's 5 month initial approach yielded 56 participants while the subsequent approach yielded 170 participants in fewer organizations.
Conclusions: Recruiting adolescents to interventions from CBOs that they were not associated with was unsuccessful, diluting feasibility. Instead, specifically recruiting organizations already offering similarly structured programs and a technology transfer approach were more effective in increasing CBO investment and client enrollment in the program. Utilizing CBO staff and their relationships with the adolescents also proved critical in recruiting participants.
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.