Recruiting Young Adult Cancer Survivors for Behavioral Research

Abstract

Young adults have been dramatically underrepresented in cancer survivorship research. One contributing factor is the difficulty recruiting this population. To identify effective recruitment strategies, the current study assessed the yield of strategies used to recruit young survivors for an exercise intervention including: clinic-based recruitment, recruitment at cancer-related events, mailings, telephone-based recruitment, advertising on the internet, radio, television and social networking media, distributing brochures and word-of-mouth referrals. When taking into account the strategies for which we could track the number of survivors approached, recruitment at an oncology clinic was the most productive: 38 % of those approached were screened and 8 % enrolled. When evaluating which strategy yielded the greatest percentage of the sample, however, mailings were the most productive. Given widespread use of the internet and social networking by young adults, investigators should also consider these low-cost recruitment strategies.

A Diversified Recruitment Approach Incorporating Social Media Leads to Research Participation Among Young Adult-Aged Female Cancer Survivors

“…[5][6][7][8][9][10] Our limited understanding of how best to address these and other long-term survivorship care needs may be partly related to difficulties recruiting young survivors for research studies. [11][12][13][14] Several factors contribute to recruitment challenges in AYA-aged survivors. [11][12][13][14] Since they constitute only 5% of the cancer survivor population in the United States, 15 the number of AYA-aged survivors seen at individual medical facilities is limited.…”

“…[11][12][13][14] Several factors contribute to recruitment challenges in AYA-aged survivors. [11][12][13][14] Since they constitute only 5% of the cancer survivor population in the United States, 15 the number of AYA-aged survivors seen at individual medical facilities is limited. While cancer cooperative groups provide infrastructure for studies with multi-site recruitment, most of these studies focus on treatment 16 and these groups are less focused on studying survivorship issues.…”

“…Young survivors are also a geographically dispersed and mobile population because of their fluctuating academic and career stages. 11,13,14 Further, they are less likely to have health insurance, more likely to have limited access to healthcare, and less likely to visit a doctor. [17][18][19] Follow-up care is also dispersed because some survivors will obtain care from doctors in their community and others from a pediatric or adult cancer center.…”

Outdoor Adventure Therapy to Increase Physical Activity in Young Adult Cancer Survivors

“…Rabin et al (2013) extended the work of Zebrack's study to conduct an in-depth qualitative study with 20 YACS and found that programs involving PA, relaxation, emotional support, information, nutrition/weight management, and similarity with other participants were the common program categories that might promote physical and emotional health for YACS. Taken together, there appears to be a strong need for interventions tailored to the needs of this demographic.…”

“…Rabin et al (2013) conducted semi-structured interviews in an exploratory qualitative study with 20 YACS about intervention preferences and the emerging themes were that interventions should work with competing obligations (such as work and family) and that interventions should also provide social support. Zebrack, Bleyer, Albritton, Medearis and Tang (2006) studied 37 YACS to assess health and supportive care needs and found that 96% ranked meeting other survivors as a top five need.…”