Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders’ preferences in recruitment strategies/messaging for participation in a research recruitment registry for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, aging, and caregiving research: A discrete choice experiment survey

Abstract Background Underrepresentation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in research requires urgent attention. The Collaborative Approach for AAPIs Research and Education (CARE) registry aims to increase AAPIs’ representation in research. We report results from a multilingual discrete choice experiment (DCE), an innovative method to determine older AAPIs’ preferences for tailored recruitment strategies and messaging. Methods Initial DCE recruitment strategy/messaging attributes and attribute levels were selected based on feedback from CARE focus groups. A pilot study (16 participants from 7 AAPI cultural groups) refined attribute wording and levels. The final DCE survey was translated into Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. CARE academic and community partners recruited participants (AAPIs aged ≥50 years) for the survey, asking them to select their preference in each of 12 pairs of recruitment strategies (randomly selected from 48 different combinations) of three attributes: (1) from whom they would like to learn about CARE; (2) what would motivate them to join CARE; and (3) how they would prefer hearing about CARE. A custom Qualtrics survey displayed image pairs of randomly selected messaging combinations. Analyses utilized conditional logistic regression models to estimate odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals. Results A total of 356 (mean age = 65.0; range: 50‐93) participants from 7 AAPI cultural groups (Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Samoan, and Vietnamese) completed the survey. Overall, participants had similar preferences for learning about CARE between community organizations and the healthcare community, however, participants preferred learning about CARE from the healthcare community (e.g., doctors, clinics) relative to community champions and faith‐based organizations. Participants were more motivated to join CARE to help advance research relative to sharing personal experiences; and preferred to hear about CARE via social media and instant messaging relative to a flyer or workshop/seminar. Importantly, preferences varied by age, cultural group, survey completion language, and whether the participant received assistance with the survey. Conclusions To our knowledge, this is the first study using a DCE approach to elicit preferences for registry recruitment strategies among AAPIs. Findings will inform appropriate tailoring of recruitment strategies/messaging to successfully engage AAPI participants in a registry for ADRD research. aging after age 90.