Table 2.

Summary of challenges associated with recruitment in co-design research

Research Phase	Challenges	Actions	Costs
Grant writing	- Limited experience with co-design research - Limited knowledge of recruitment strategies - Limited anticipation of time, human resources, and costs associated with recruitment	Engaging one family caregiver on the research team at the time of grant writing - Self-training the co-design research within limited time	- Stress and time pressure especially close to the grant submission time
Planning for data collection	- Limited familiarity with family caregiver’s context and realities - Non-feasibility of research methods in the original grant proposal	(Re) co-designing methods with trusted community caregivers organizations	- Traveling costs to visit community partners - Time to build trust with community partners
Data collection	- Ensuring shared understanding and building trust - Accommodating family caregivers’ preferences for time and locations - Prolonged data collection process longer than anticipated	- Frequent email communications with interested family caregivers prior to FGs - Seeking extension from funder	- Time - Long distance travels - Working with limited financial and human resources
Recruitment Strategies
Partnering with caregiver organizations	- Slow and lengthy process due to missing resources, mutual misunderstanding, and absent trust - Misalignment of values, roles and expectations	- Constant communications with to build trust and to (re)co-design the research methodology	- Human, time, and financial resources
Social and print media	- High cost compared to least effectiveness - Receiving many irrelevant email inquiries	- Designing professional social and print media	- High financial cost - Time
Flyers in geriatrics clinics	Clinic staff time constraints, bureaucratic rules and procedures, and potential of perceived competing interests	- Designing professional yet lay-public friendly flyers	- Time and financial resources associated with designing professional flyers
Traditional snowball sampling	-Least effective in recruiting - Relying on word-of-mouth referrals	- Seeking recruited family caregivers to engage other family caregivers	- Time