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286 Recruitment Efforts of a Preventive HIV Vaccine Trial
M. Humphries*, S. Solomon, E. Cohen, A. Herring, S. Tasker, M. Robb, D. Birx, S. Schlesinger-Frankel, and M. Marovich
Combined US Military HIV Res. Program, Rockville, MD, USA
Background: The recruitment of volunteers for vaccine trials is notoriously difficult. Barriers for recruitment into vaccine trials include fear of acquiring HIV, time commitment, and the prevailing anti-vaccine sentiment within the community. To meet some of these challenges, we have examined a spectrum of recruitment efforts for our ongoing preventative HIV vaccine trial and refined our recruitment strategies.
Methods: Data were collected prospectively from phone conversations and personal interviews with potential volunteers. Basic statistics were applied to the data.
Results: Early recruitment efforts consisted of flyers and word-of-mouth. Flyers and word-of-mouth generated a poor response. Recruitment efforts were intensified using local newspaper advertisements. A total of 541 local individuals responded over a 4-month period. Eighty percent of callers identified newspapers as their information source. Sixty-three percent of the callers remained interested at the end of the phone conversation. Nineteen percent of the total callers scheduled an appointment for a briefing and screening visit. The briefing session, held immediately prior to the screening visit, served 2 purposes: as community education and as part of the informed consent process. Eight percent of the total callers (44/541) participated in the briefing and screening process. Throughout the process, males and females were equally represented at the screening visit. The majority of screened volunteers (70%) were between the ages of 36 and 55 and most volunteers (68%) identified altruistic reasons for their interest in the trial. Of the potential volunteers who completed screening, 55% were Caucasian, 38% African-American, 5% Hispanic, and 2% South Asian descent.
Conclusions: Recruitment planning is essential in reaching enrollment goals and ultimately for the execution of well-designed HIV vaccine trials. Our results show that newspaper advertising was the most effective recruitment strategy. The demographics of our potential volunteer base (screened volunteers) approximate our local community. With altruism identified as the most common motivation, we conclude that the community is ready and highly motivated to participate in the HIV vaccine efforts.
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