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Introduction: People living rurally face health inequities fuelled by social exclusion, access to and awareness of health services, and poor transport links. In order to improve the acceptability, accessibility and applicability of health and care interventions, it is important that clinical trial participant populations include people living rurally. Identifying strategies that improve recruitment of rural participants to trials will support trialists, reduce research waste and contribute to alleviating health inequalities experienced by rural patients. The objective of the review is to quantify the effects of randomised evaluations of strategies to recruit rural participants to randomised controlled trials. Methods: The following databases will be searched for relevant studies: Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science All, EBSCO CINAHL, Proquest, ERIC, IngentaConnect, Web of Science SSCI and AHCI, and Scopus. Any randomised evaluation of a recruitment intervention aiming to improve recruitment of rural participants to a randomised trial will be included. We will not apply any restriction on publication date, language or journal. The primary, and only, outcome of our review will be the proportion of participants recruited to a randomised controlled trial. Two reviewers will independently screen abstracts and titles for eligible studies, and then full texts of relevant records will be reviewed by the same two reviewers. Where disagreements cannot be resolved through discussion, a third reviewer will adjudicate. Results: We will assess the methodological quality of individual studies using the Cochrane risk of bias tool, and the GRADE approach will be applied to determine the certainty of the evidence within each comparison. Conclusion: This systematic review will quantify the effects of randomised evaluations of strategies to recruit rural participants to trials. Our findings will contribute to the evidence base to support trial teams to recruit a participant population that represents society as a whole, informing future research and playing a part to alleviate health inequalities between rural and urban populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve testing coverage, it is imperative to determine adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) preferences about HIV testing modality and where they prefer receiving services. Participants were enrolled between May 2017 and April 2018 from three sites in Homa Bay County, Nyanza region, western Kenya. We explored two recruitment approaches (home-based vs. mobile-event based) and three HIV testing options (oral self-test, staff-administered, or referral to health facility). Exact logistic regression compared yield of newly diagnosed HIV and high-risk HIV-negatives from the recruitment and testing option strategies. A total of 1,198 participants were enrolled, 1,046 (87.3%) at home and 152 (12.7%) at mobile events. Most participants (928, 77.5%) chose staff-aided testing either at home or at a mobile event; 268 (22.4%) chose self-testing; and only 2 (.2%) chose facility referral. Prevalence of newly diagnosed HIV-positives was 2.7% (32/1,198) and 36.8% (429/1,166) of HIV-negative AGYW were identified as high risk. We identified more newly diagnosed HIV infection among AGYW recruited at mobile events than at home (OR = 3.11; 95% CI: 1.33–6.74; p =.02). High-risk status was related to neither recruitment strategy nor testing modality. Older age was associated with increased odds of selecting an oral self-test (OR = 1.85; 95% CI: 1.06–3.22). More than one-third of AGYW were at elevated risk of HIV infection, and those unaware of their HIV infection were more likely to be identified at a mobile outreach. Though self-testing was not the dominant preferred strategy, self-tests were performed accurately and with high confidence. These findings can help inform efficient identification of undiagnosed HIV infection and high risk for seroconversion among AGYW in similar settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Washington University School of Medicine Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center's "African American Participation in Alzheimer Disease Research: Effective Strategies" Workshop convened to address a major limitation of the ongoing scientific progress regarding Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD): participants in most ADRD research programs overwhelmingly have been limited to non‐Hispanic white persons, thus precluding knowledge as to how ADRD may be represented in non‐white individuals. Factors that may contribute to successful recruitment and retention of African Americans into ADRD research were discussed and organized into actionable next steps as described within this report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current reality of IT skills shortages in general and the lack of students in computing in particular has been a subject of interest in the United States in the last decade. We need to better understand the educational environment, especially at the middle school and the high school level, in order to generate interest about technology related preferences, habits, and interests. The purpose of this paper is to study the perceptions of incoming college students regarding the information technology/computing major. This study used a cross-sectional survey methodology for data collection. Findings included confusion about the definition of information technology, negative connotations of the IT field, and lack of awareness among college students concerning technology. Proactive strategies are required to encourage the participation of students in computing related courses and careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In times of rapid change and technical change, in a complex and dynamic environment, organizations must strive for superiority, in order to survive and to serve the clients who want more quality and lower price. Corporate leaders and human resources strategists have to take up this challenge of changing work attitudes across the organization. This involves guiding, leading, enabling and motivating people. This article is looking at aligning marketing with recruitment efforts, to obtain organizational performance. Anticipating customers' needs, the organization develop specific plans of recruitment, selection and retention of those candidates who satisfy these needs at the highest level. Only anticipating and retaining those "right people at the right time", an organization may obtain success into a global, dynamic and changing environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to address on-campus recruiting strategies for hospitality programs in higher education. In order to do so this research sought two goals, 1) assess the effectiveness of using the introductory course in hospitality management as an on-campus recruiting strategy and 2) provide a comparative analysis of the introductory course in hospitality management as a recruiting tool today as compared to a decade ago. This research is expected to contribute to the hospitality education field by providing up-to-date information regarding effective means of on-campus recruiting. The findings of this research supported the overall findings of the 1996 study (Hubbard & Kent, 1996). Both studies supported the use of the introductory hospitality management course as an on-campus recruiting strategy. Recruiting students into the hospitality major through the introductory hospitality management course was and is still a viable recruiting tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The purpose of this study was to compare the oxygen uptake (VO2), respiratory exchange ratio (RER), cadence and muscle activity during cycling a 40-km time trial (TT), and to analyse the relationship between muscle activity and power output (PO). Eight triathletes cycled a 40-km TT on their own bicycles, which were mounted on a stationary cycle simulator. The VO2, RER and muscle activity (electromyography, EMG) from tibialis anterior (TA), gastrocnemius medialis (GA), biceps femoris (BF), rectus femoris (RF) and vastus lateralis (VL) of the lower limb were collected. The PO was recorded from the cycle simulator. The data were collected at the 3rd, 10th, 20th, 30th and 38thkm. The root mean square envelope (RMS) of EMG was calculated. The VO2 and PO presented a significant increase at the 38thkm (45.23±8.35mlkgmin−1 and 107±7.11% of mean PO of 40-km, respectively) compared to the 3rdkm (38.12±5.98mlkgmin−1 and 92±8.30% of mean PO of 40-km, respectively). There were no significant changes in cadence and RER throughout the TT. The VL was the only muscle that presented significant increases in the RMS at the 10thkm (22.56±3.05% max), 20thkm (23.64±2.52% max), 30thkm (25.27±3.00% max), and 38thkm (26.28±3.57%max) when compared to the 3rdkm (21.03±1.88%max). The RMS of VL and RF presented a strong relationship to PO (r =0.89 and 0.86, respectively, p <0.05). The muscular steady state reported for cycling a 30-min TT seems to occur in the 40-km TT, for almost all assessed muscles, probably in attempt to avoid premature muscle fatigue. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Focuses on Project Sugar, an attempt to increase the number of African Americans participating in clinical trials. Recruitment of diabetic African American families, or the Sea Island people (Gullahs); Identification of markers for diabetes among Sea Island natives who tended to be genetically homogenous; Creation of scientific strategies to promote methods for recruitment of African Americans into clinical trials aimed at reducing health disparities among the population.

Background and Purpose. Many economic factors have forced changes upon the profession of physical therapy, resulting in a decline of qualified applicants. The purpose of this study was to identify recruitment practices utilized by professional (entry-level) physical therapist education programs. Subjects. The subjects were chairs of professional physical therapist education programs in the United States accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE) for the class entering in 2001 (N 189). Methods. A survey instrument was designed and the 53 recruitment strategies were classified as: (1) Traditional, (2) Electronic, (3) Personnel, or (4) Program Change. Results. A total of 109 programs (58%) returned completed surveys. Traditional recruitment strategies were more often utilized; however, an institutional Web page was cited as the most frequently used recruitment strategy. Faculty was more often used in recruitment efforts than recruiters, current students, or alumni. Use of an early admissions program was the most frequently cited program change strategy followed by flexible admissions standards and a change to the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree. Discussion and Conclusions. Of the 10 most frequently utilized strategies, 5 were Traditional, 3 were Electronic, and 2 were Personnel While Traditional recruitment strategies continue to be utilized frequently, program administrators should scrutinize the types and varieties of Electronic, Personnel, and Program Change strategies. The wide spectrum of recruitment strategies available today, along with the potential interaction of external factors, make determination of the effectiveness of a particular strategy very difficult for college administrators. Further research is necessary to determine effectiveness of any particular strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Virtual supermarkets offer a practical and affordable setting to test the efficacy of different pricing and nudging strategies before they are implemented in the real world. Despite the advantages of using virtual supermarkets for this purpose, conducting studies in online settings is challenging with regard to recruitment and retention of sufficient and suitable participants. Objective: To describe cost, time, and retention with regard to participants recruited using various strategies and potential sociodemographic differences between participants recruited via different strategies. Methods: This cross-sectional study used data from a randomized controlled trial in which 455 Dutch adults with low and high educational levels were invited to shop 5 times in a 3D virtual supermarket. Participants were recruited via social media and flyers. A log that tracked the costs of and time spent on the different recruitment strategies was kept by the study team. Outcome measures included the cost of recruitment strategies, the time investment by researchers, and recruitment and attrition rates of participants in the study. Results: The median age of study completers was 31.0 (IQR 25.0) and 157 out of 346 study completers (45.4%) were highly educated. Out of the 455 included participants, 235 (51.6%) were recruited via social media campaigns, 131 (28.8%) via home-delivered flyers, 38 (8.4%) via flyers directly distributed by the study team, and 46 (10.1%) via word-of-mouth. Of all paid recruitment strategies, social media campaigns were the cheapest and least time-consuming, whereas the distribution of flyers by the study team was the most expensive and time-consuming recruitment strategy. Age, sex, overweight status, employment situation, and number of adults within the household varied by recruitment strategy. Conclusions: Using different recruitment strategies resulted in the efficient recruitment of a representative study sample and retention of participants was relatively high. While "word-of-mouth" was the most cost- and time-effective recruitment strategy, using only one type of recruitment strategy could result in a demographically skewed study population. JMIR Form Res 2021;5(2):e19234 doi:10.2196/19234 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]