Sampling and Recruiting Community-Based Programs Using Community-Partnered Participation Research

Susan E Stockdale; Lingqi Tang; Esmeralda Pudilo; Anna Lucas-Wright; Bowen Chung; Mariana Horta; Zoe Masongsong; Felica Jones; Thomas R Belin; Cathy Sherbourne; Kenneth Wells

doi:10.1177/1524839915605059

Sampling and Recruiting Community-Based Programs Using Community-Partnered Participation Research

Health Promot Pract. 2016 Mar;17(2):254-64. doi: 10.1177/1524839915605059. Epub 2015 Sep 18.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, USA susan.stockdale@va.gov.
² VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, USA UCLA Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
³ UCLA Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁴ Healthy African American Families II, Los Angeles, CA, USA Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁵ David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA, USA.
⁶ Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
⁷ Healthy African American Families II, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁸ David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁹ RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA.
¹⁰ David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA UCLA Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, CA, USA RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

PMID: 26384926
DOI: 10.1177/1524839915605059

Abstract

The inclusion of community partners in participatory leadership roles around statistical design issues like sampling and randomization has raised concerns about scientific integrity. This article presents a case study of a community-partnered, participatory research (CPPR) cluster-randomized, comparative effectiveness trial to examine implications for study validity and community relevance. Using study administrative data, we describe a CPPR-based design and implementation process for agency/program sampling, recruitment, and randomization for depression interventions. We calculated participation rates and used cross-tabulation to examine balance by intervention status on service sector, location, and program size and assessed differences in potential populations served. We achieved 51.5% agency and 89.6% program participation rates. Programs in different intervention arms were not significantly different on service sector, location, or program size. Participating programs were not significantly different from eligible, nonparticipating programs on community characteristics. We reject claims that including community members in research design decisions compromises scientific integrity. This case study suggests that a CPPR process can improve implementation of a community-grounded, rigorous randomized comparative effectiveness trial.

Keywords: CBPR; anxiety; depression.

MeSH terms

Adult
Community Health Services / methods*
Community Health Services / organization & administration
Community-Based Participatory Research / methods*
Community-Based Participatory Research / organization & administration
Depression / diagnosis
Depression / prevention & control
Female
Humans
Male
Patient Selection
Program Evaluation
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / methods
Sampling Studies