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Journal of Applied Gerontology, Vol. 27, No. 3, 267-285 (2008) DOI: 10.1177/0733464807311655 © 2008 Southern Gerontological Society Issues in Recruitment, Retention, and Data Collection in a Longitudinal Nutrition Study of Community-Dwelling Older Adults With Early-Stage Alzheimer's DementiaUniversité de Montréal
Université de Montréal
Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal The Nutrition-Memory Study (NMS) followed evolution of nutrition status among elderly community-dwelling individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Participants, age-matched to cognitively intact controls, were recruited from three university hospital memory clinics. Incentives encouraged retention; flexible procedures and caregiver collaboration permitted collection of nutrition information from AD patients. Of 71 patients referred by the clinics, 55 (77.5%) were eligible, 42 (76.4% of eligible) were recruited with their caregivers, and 40 (72.7%) completed the baseline. Thirty-two patient—caregiver dyads completed the first three interviews (58.1% of eligible; 80% of recruited); 26 of the 32 dyads (81.3% of recruited) completed four of the five interviews, and 14 (43.8% of recruited) were seen at all five study visits. Ensuring successful recruitment and retention in this clientele requires strong links between the research team and target community, ensuring relevance of the study to participants, and being mindful of the burden levied on patient—caregiver dyads.
Key Words: Alzheimer's dementia caregivers data collection recruitment retention nutrition
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