Table 2.

Recruitment Methods, Their Benefits, and Potential Challenges.

Method	Benefit	Potential challenges
Mass media:   Advertisements   in newspapers,   radio, television,a   Internet,a   billboarda	Reach many people	Requires staff to   respond to callers   when advertisement   is run, perhaps   during nonusual   work hours
		Often prompt   responses from   many people who   are not eligible for   the study
		Can be costly
		May require media   specialist to create   advertisements
Flyers and   pamphlets	Have something   written for people   to see	Reading level and   language should be   appropriate
		Should be visually   appealinga
	Can be linked to   websitea	May prompt   responses from   many people who   are not eligible for   the study
Researchers and   research staff	Face-to-face   interactions provide   opportunities   to develop   relationships and   communicate   directly with   members of the   target population	Might not be   perceived as   trustworthy or   familiar
Gatekeepers:   Health care staff   and community   members	Trusted professionals   and community   leaders are more   likely to create trust   (confianza), respect   (respeto), personal   relationships   (personalismo),   pleasant interactions   (simpátia) than   indirect methods	Staff or community   members may   be too busy to   recruit patients   consistently
Promotoras	Can often build   rapport with   participants quickly,   bridge the gap   between research   and the community	May need training   to maintain   confidentiality and   avoid pressuring to   participate
Participants:   Snowball   sampling	Participants may   know people who   also have the health   condition who   might otherwise be   difficult to reach	Participants might be   biased about study
	Builds on preexisting   confianza, respeto,   personalismo,   simpátia	Snowball sampling   alone might not be   sufficient to attain   desired sample size

^aNot described in this article.