Costs Associated with Recruitment and Interviewing of Study Participants in a Diverse Population of Community-Dwelling Older Adults

The aim of this study was to describe and compare the time and monetary costs associated with recruiting and interviewing a diverse sample of older adults living in south Florida. Men and women age 60 and older from four ethnic groups—African American, Afro Caribbean, Hispanic American, and European American—were recruited to participate in a longitudinal study of healthy aging. Costs for study activities (including recruitment, scheduling sessions, interviewing, file scoring, log updating, blood specimen analysis and storage, data analysis, and monetary compensation to participants) were determined after 100 weeks of data collection.

Based on data from 483 participants, the total cost for each participant ranged from $265 to $576. Each successful enrollment required an average of 1.83 hours for recruitment and scheduling of the interviews. The time to interview African Americans and Afro Caribbeans was greater than the time needed to interview Hispanic Americans and European Americans.

Engstrom GA, Tappen RM, Ouslander J. Costs associated with recruitment and interviewing of study participants in a diverse population of community-dwelling older adults. Nursing Research 2014;63(1):63-67.