Strategy | Challenge(s) | Solution(s) |
---|---|---|
Obtained lists of eligible patients • Built upon existing partnerships with community clinics to obtain potential study participants • Partnered with FQHC to obtain potential study participants | • Difficulty receiving approvals to obtain lists in secure way • Difficulty creating broad enough eligibility criteria to identify patients • Difficulty with accurate databases to identify patients • Unable to obtain patient list from FQHC in timely manner due to privacy concerns | • Additional community outreach—tabled at community events, school events, and community clinics locations • Provided nutritional education • Provided food samples • Partnered with community programs and institutions—elementary/junior high schools, public parks, YMCA |
Contacted eligible patients with trained study staff (including bilingual study staff) • Sent letters with study information to potential participants from patient lists (selected based on BMI measure from last medical visit) and co-signed by clinic physician • Cold called from patient lists | • Difficulty in reaching potential participants from community clinic lists due to outdated contact information • Unable to recruit participants within target time frames • Frequent no-shows and cancelations of baseline visits • Parents provided inaccurate estimates of child’s height and weight • Difficulty recruiting children in overweight/obese BMI percentile categories | • Expanded BMI eligibility criteria • Conducted snowball recruitment—sought referrals from parental participants • Extended recruitment period • Required potential participants’ verbal confirmation for 1- and 3-day confirmation • Enhanced communication, i.e., texting more frequently |
• Provided a family-friendly experience • Positive interactions with study staff | • Additional children and family members attended study visits • Not enough snacks for additional people • Initially, no methods of entertaining/distracting additional kids • Additional people in the room distracted parents/kids during data collection | • Provided entertainment for other siblings, i.e., toys, drawing • Provided access to wifi (to use on personal devices) for older siblings/other adults • Ensured availability of larger meeting space or multiple spaces if multiple people came • Bought additional supplies |
• Recruited in the summer when families have more time | • Slow recruitment | • Extended recruitment into the fall and took advantage of back-to-school events and fall festivals • Extended available times for data collection sections to include after-school hours and evenings |
• Flyered in targeted areas of Harlem (included bilingual study staff, always in pairs) | • Community push-back • Flyers frequently torn down | • Increased time spent on community flyering/increase number of flyers posted • More strategic flyering (e.g., posted in local businesses with their approval, distributed flyers to interested local organizations such as churches, clinics) |
• Convenient study location centrally located in East Harlem neighborhood and flexible study visit dates/times (included weekends and evenings) | • Unanticipated issues with allowing study participants to enter building (with security) | • Enhanced communication with building security • Requested parents to text us directly upon arrival and did not rely on security to call study staff |
Incentives • Up to $70 in gift cards for the parents/guardians for completing study visit • Up to $65 in gift cards for children completing study visits • $100 gift card raffle entry for dyad participants that completed all study components • Variety of gift cards to choose from: Aldi, Wholefoods, Modell’s, Target |  |  |
Unified communication system • Used Google Voice number as single study phone and texting line • Single Hunter College email address accessible to all study staff • Used Google calendar as central scheduling platform | • Coordinated monitoring of the study line and email (especially with Spanish-speaking participants) • Coordinated availability of study staff to moderate study visit (originally the person who made contact would also be moderator, but changed to whoever was available to moderator session) | • Additional staff (especially Spanish-speaking) added to the study team • Standardized monitoring/scheduling procedure was incorporated |