Challenges in Recruitment of Research Participants, Essay Example

The aim of this study is to examine the health challenges faced in African American women living with type 2 diabetes. While there are many complications associated with diabetes in general, these challenges are increased with regards to kidney failure, amputations, and cardiovascular disease in this study population. Because the population density of African American women living with type 2 diabetes is increased in urban areas, it would be preferable to select a convenience sampling design to study this relationship between this ethnicity/gender and health. It would be challenging to collect a sample of the target population through random selection because according to statistical chance, there will be more individuals in the community who are not a member of this target population compared to the number of individuals that are (Patel et al., 2003). Therefore, it is simpler with regards to time and expense to recruit subjects who already fit the population criteria from my local health care institution and then to complete a qualitative health analysis of these individuals without randomization.

It would be necessary to retrieve a sample size of at least 50 individuals. An important consideration in a study created based on a convenience sample is that there may be many factors that confound the relationship being examined (Egmond-Fröhlich et al., 2012). As a consequence, the likelihood of these variables having a negative impact on the results can be reduced by increasing the sample size. In this patient population, an important concern is the impact that the weight of each individual has on their health. It is generally expected that the recruited women will be overweight or obese, but it is possible to receive data outliers that are much more underweight or much more overweight compared to the individuals recruited to the study. Therefore, it is necessary to select the sample size in a manner that will allow the original relationship to still be examined in spite of confounders.

Selecting a convenience sample of African American women with type 2 diabetes will allow specific questions about this patient population to be answered more directly. In random sampling it is difficult to determine the homogeneity or heterogeneity of the population being selected for study, as the point of randomization is to increase the odds of receiving a heterogeneous population. However, the convenience sample will allow for the possibility of selecting women for their specific traits in addition to their disease status which may answer information about other disease conditions they are experiencing in addition to what they find helpful to keep their diabetes under control.

The most important factor related to using a sample size of 50 individuals through a convenience sample is that doing so will allow it to be easier to increase the chances that patients will attend follow up examinations. Loss to follow up is a major concern in many clinical studies and this problem becomes increasingly more challenging as the number of study participants rises (Eid et al., 2012). However, a convenience sample allows the researcher to pick only the individuals for study that appear to be willing to participate in all aspects of the research and will therefore be more likely to participate in additional practices when the researcher calls them. A group of 50 individuals would also be easier to contact for this purpose, and consistent communication will likely increase the odds of follow up as well.

In conclusion, a convenience sample of 50 women is ideal for this project to ensure that enough participants can be recruited for the qualitative analysis and that there will be a smaller chance of confounding variables. Furthermore, this approach will prevent a large amount of loss to follow up, which will make the results of this project more meaningful.

References

Egmond-Fröhlich AWA, Widhalm K, de Zwaa M. (2012). Association of symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder with childhood overweight adjusted for confounding parental variables. International Journal of Obesity, 36: 963–968.

Eid GM, Brethauer S, Mattar S, Titchner RL, Gourash W, Schauer PR. (2012). Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy for Super Obese Patients: Forty-eight Percent Excess Weight Loss      after 6 to 8 Years With 93% Follow-Up. Annals of Surgery, 256(2): 262–265.

Patel MX, Doku V, Tennakoon L. (2003). Challenges in recruitment of research participants.  Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 9: 229-238.