Health promotion research with mexican american elders: Matching approaches to settings at the mediator- and micro-levels of recruitment

Minority elders are inadequately represented in health promotion research. A contributing factor may be that recruitment approaches have not been well adapted to the life experiences of these populations. This article examines recruitment approaches used in several health promotion projects with Mexican American and European American elders, using the Matching Model of Recruitment as a theoretical framework. According to the model, matches between the perspectives of ethnic minority groups and researchers lead to recruitment and retention success, while mismatches or conflicts lead to failure. The article highlights how researchers in four small projects conducted by the Hispanic Healthy Aging Center adapted their recruitment approaches to match the perspectives of gatekeepers at the mediator level and individual participants at the micro level of recruitment, as defined by the Matching Model. Factors contributing to successful recruitment and retention are summarized and rated in terms of their relative importance for both groups of elders, and for clinic and community settings.