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. 2018 Jan 31;18(1):19.
doi: 10.1186/s12887-018-0983-4.

Recruiting families for an intervention study to prevent second-hand smoke exposure in children

Sasha G Hutchinson  1 , Constant P van Schayck  2 , Jean W M Muris  2 , Frans J M Feron  3 , Edward Dompeling  4
Affiliations

Recruiting families for an intervention study to prevent second-hand smoke exposure in children

Sasha G Hutchinson et al. BMC Pediatr. .

Abstract

Background: We evaluated the effectiveness of different recruitment strategies used in a study aimed at eliminating/reducing second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure in Dutch children 0-13 years of age with a high risk of asthma.

Methods: The different strategies include: 1) questionnaires distributed via home addresses, physicians or schools of the children; 2) cohorts from other paediatric studies; 3) physicians working in the paediatric field (family physicians, paediatricians and Youth Health Care (YHC) physicians); and 4) advertisements in a local newsletter, at child-care facilities, and day-care centres.

Results: More than 42,782 families were approached to take part in the screening of which 3663 could be assessed for eligibility. Of these responders, 196 families met the inclusion criteria for the study. However, only 58 (one third) could be randomised in the trial, mainly because of no interest or time of the parents. The results showed that recruiting families who expose their children to SHS exposure is very challenging, which may be explained by lack of 'recognition' or awareness that SHS occurs in homes. The presence of asthma in the family, respiratory symptoms in the children, and even incentives did not increase parental motivation for participation in the study.

Conclusions: The recruitment process for an intervention program addressing SHS exposure in children was considerably more challenging and time consuming than anticipated. Barriers at both a parents level and a doctor's level can be discriminated.

Keywords: Children; Hard-to-reach populations; Recruitment; Second-hand smoke.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The recruitment strategies were approved by the Medical Ethic Committee MUMC+. Questionnaire A was also used to analyse the association between SHS and respiratory complaints in children in another manuscript [16]. Participants proved written consent information.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart recruitment and enrolment
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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