Recruitment strategies for predominantly low-income, multi-racial/ethnic children and parents to 3-year community-based intervention trials: Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research (COPTR) Consortium.

Background: The recruitment of participants into community-based randomized controlled trials studying childhood obesity is often challenging, especially from low-income racial/ethnical minorities and when long-term participant commitments are required. This paper describes strategies used to recruit and enroll predominately low-income racial/ethnic minority parents and children into the Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment Research (COPTR) consortium.

Methods: The COPTR consortium has run four independent 3-year, multi-level (individual, family, school, clinic, and community) community-based randomized controlled trials.

Use of Appreciative Inquiry To Engage Parents as Codesigners of a Weight Management Intervention for Adolescents.

Background: Focus groups are often used to involve families as codesigners of weight management interventions. Focus groups, however, are seldom designed to elicit families' strengths and positive experiences. The purpose of this study was to describe the use of the Appreciative Inquiry process in the conduct of focus groups to engage families in the design of a weight management intervention for adolescents.