Recruiting UK-born ethnic minority women for health research - lessons learned

Recruitment of participants for health research is a vital part of the research process. If not done well it can lead to research bias and/or limit the generalisability of the findings of a study. Many investigators report difficulties in recruiting ethnic minority participants, in particular women. Previous articles have tended to explore strategies used to recruit people from migrant populations to quantitative studies, especially clinical trials. Drawing on a qualitative study about maternity care experiences of UK-born ethnic minority women in England, this paper describes and compares the efficacy of six recruitment strategies used for women from Black African, Black Caribbean, Irish, Pakistani, and Indian backgrounds. We explore women’s motivations and experiences in taking part in the study through retrospective interviews with participants and with health professionals who recruited participants through maternity clinics. The findings indicate that women’s motivations to participate in research are similar to those found in previous studies with minority and non-minority groups. Traditional routes of recruitment for ethnic minorities, such as through community groups, were less effective indicating that UK-born migrants require more diverse methods. Recruitment through health professionals requires an effort to ‘recruit the recruiter’ and a more collaborative relationship is recommended.