Enrolling Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment in Research: Lessons from A Study of Tai Chi for Osteoarthritis Knee Pain

摘要

Exercise is an adjunct intervention for treating osteoarthritis (OA) knee pain, but many elders, especially those who with cognitive impairment, refuse to participate because of their frailty. Tai Chi (TC) is a gentle alternative to Western style aerobic exercise. We report recruitment experience based on elders' comments recorded by the staff and staff's observations/reports in a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) using TC as an intervention to reduce OA knee pain in a cognitively impaired elderly population. Challenges in recruitment included issues with retirement apartment site staff, the elders, study criteria or study design, and insufficient research staff. Strategies included networking and staying connected with site staff, using various recruiting approaches, providing incentives/motivation, and using informal leaders or residents as a venue to recruit participants. Finally, modifying strict study criteria, securing staff for recruiting, and considering alternative designs to classical RCT can also assist in overcoming the recruitment challenges.