Re-recruiting postpartum women living with HIV into a follow-up study in Cape Town, South Africa.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Recruitment and retention present major challenges to longitudinal research in maternal and child health, yet there are few insights into optimal strategies that can be employed in low-resource settings. Following prior participation in a longitudinal study following women living with HIV through pregnancy and breastfeeding in Cape Town, women were re-contacted at least 18 months after the last study contact and were invited to attend an additional follow-up visit. We describe lessons learnt and offer recommendations for a multiphase recruitment approach.

Results

Using telephone calls, home visits, clinic tracing and Facebook/WhatsApp messages, we located 387 of the 463 eligible women and successfully enrolled 353 (91% of those contacted). Phone calls were the most

SUBMITTER: Mogoba P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6660934 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature