Recruitment strategies for predominantly low-income, multi-racial/ethnic children and parents to 3-year community-based intervention trials: Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research (COPTR) Consortium

Background: The recruitment of participants into community-based randomized controlled trials studying childhood obesity is often challenging, especially from low-income racial/ethnical minorities and when long-term participant commitments are required. This paper describes strategies used to recruit and enroll predominately low-income racial/ethnic minority parents and children into the Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research (COPTR) consortium. Methods: The COPTR consortium has run four independent 3-year, multi-level (individual, family, school, clinic, and community) community-based randomized controlled trials. Two were prevention trials in preschool children and the other two were treatment trials in pre-adolescents and adolescent youth. All trials reported monthly participant recruitment numbers using a standardized method over the projected 18-24 months of recruitment. After randomization of participants was completed, recruitment staff and investigators from each trial retrospectively completed a survey of recruitment strategies and their perceived top three recruitment strategies and barriers. Results: Recruitment was completed in 15-21 months across trials, enrolling a total of 1745 parent-child dyads- out of 6314 screened. The number of children screened per randomized child was 4.6 and 3.5 in the two prevention trials, and 3.1 and 2.5 in the two treatment trials. Recruitment strategies reported included: (1) careful planning, (2) working with trusting community partners, (3) hiring recruitment staff who were culturally sensitive, personality appropriate, and willing to work flexible hours, (4) contacting potential participants actively and repeatedly, (5) recruiting at times and locations convenient for participants, (6) providing incentives to participants to complete baseline measures, (7) using a tracking database, (8) evaluating whether participants understand the activities and expectations of the study, and (9) assessing participants' motivation for participating. Working with community partners, hiring culturally sensitive staff, and contacting potential participants repeatedly were cited by two trials among their top three strategies. The requirement of a 3-year commitment to the trial was cited by two trials to be among the top three recruitment barriers. Conclusions: Comprehensive strategies that include community partnership support, culturally sensitive recruitment staff, and repeated contacts with potential participants can result in successful recruitment of low-income racial/ethnic minority families into obesity prevention and treatment trials

The Effect of Continuous and Probabilistic Reinforcement Instructions on Children's Revision of Belief in Hypotheses During a Probability Learningtask

316 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1971.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

sex-related difference in cognititive functioning : developmental issues

xvi, 378 p.; 23 cm

Influence of gender and race on hemodynamic response to dobutamine during dobutamine stress echocardiography

This study sought to determine the influence of gender and/or race on the hemodynamic response to dobutamine during dobutamine stress echocardiography. Blood pressure response patterns differed by gender and race, and completion of testing was often limited because of adverse events, namely, hypertension. Gender and racial differences in blood pressure response merit consideration as potential contributors to the suboptimal response in dobutamine stress testing. © 2004 by Excerpta Medica, Inc

β-Adrenergic receptor gene polymorphisms and hemodynamic response to dobutamine during dobutamine stress echocardiography

Our objective was to determine if β1-adrenergic receptor (β1-AR) and β2-AR gene polymorphisms influence heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) response to dobutamine during dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE). Patients (n=163) undergoing clinically indicated DSE were enrolled. Dobutamine doses were titrated from 5 to 40 μg kg-1 min-1 at 3 min intervals and HR, SBP and DBP were measured. Genotypes were determined for β1-AR Ser49Gly, β1-AR Arg389Gly, β2-AR Arg16Gly and β2-AR Gln27Glu polymorphisms by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, pyrosequencing and single primer extension methods. β2 -AR Glu27 homozygotes had a greater HR response at the highest dobutamine dose than Gln27 carriers (P = 0.002). β2-AR Gly16 homozygotes had a lower HR response during 5-30 μg kg-1 min-1 of the dobutamine infusion protocol compared to Arg16 carriers (P = 0.03). Differences in SBP by β2-AR codon 16 genotype and DBP by β1-AR codon 389 genotype were found at baseline and were maintained throughout DSE (P = 0.06 and 0.02, respectively). However, the magnitude of SBP and DBP response to dobutamine did not differ significantly by β2-AR codon 16 or β1-AR codon 389 genotypes, respectively. These data suggest that the four selected β1- and β2-AR polymorphisms do not substantially influence the magnitude of hemodynamic response to dobutamine during DSE