Abstract
We assessed the feasibility and acceptability of collecting a saliva sample for DNA through the mail from a national sample of drinkers and examined whether targeted messaging would increase the response rates of Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino participants. We invited respondents from two prior national population surveys to participate in a brief telephone survey regarding recent alcohol use and to mail in a self-administered saliva sample. Blacks/African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and Whites had similar rates of consenting to participate. A higher proportion of respondents with a college education and a family history of alcohol problems consented. The differences in participation between respondents receiving targeted and general messaging were not statistically significant. This study provides preliminary evidence for the feasibility of recruiting diverse participants into a genetic study of alcohol use disorder.
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Notes
Focus groups with Hispanic Americans were conducted by the current study team and led by Dr. Martinez. We held two gender-specific focus groups (8 and 10 participants) among Mexican-Americans in Fresno, CA. All participants reported having two or more drinks in their lifetime.
Stakeholders were Black/African American students, parents, faculty, and staff who participated in focus groups soliciting feedback on the Virginia Commonwealth University Spit for Science project.
More information on the recruitment materials used for this study is available upon request from the first author.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Clare Tairsmith, Cuie Sun, Shelley Osborn, and Deborah Krug for their assistance in conducting the pilot study. A special thanks to Dr. Danielle Dick who was instrumental during our information-gathering phase for the development of targeted study messaging.
Funding
The VCU Presidential Research Quest Fund Award to KGC provided funding for the pilot study. The original national surveys were funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism grants P50AA005595 (National Alcohol Survey) and R01AA022791 (National Alcohol’s Harm to Others Survey). KJK was supported by P50AA005595. PM was supported by K01AA024832.
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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all respondents for being included in the study.
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Chartier, K.G., Martinez, P., Cummings, C. et al. Recruiting for diversity: a pilot test of recruitment strategies for a national alcohol survey with mail-in genetic data collection. J Community Genet 12, 459–468 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12687-020-00502-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12687-020-00502-3