RESEARCH IN THE RETIREMENT VILLAGE COMMUNITY – DOES THE RECRUITED SAMPLE REFLECT THE RESIDENT POPULATION?

Background Retirement Villages (RVs) for older people represent a burgeoning industry. However, we know little about residents’ demographics and health/disability issues - information which could inform health planning, facilitate independence and reduce service demand. RVs are semi-closed communities: access for researchers is most conveniently gained via RV managers. We are studying RV residents in Auckland, New Zealand (NZ) to acquire demographic, health, disability and social data, with a randomized-controlled-trial of a multidisciplinary intervention aimed to reduce adverse outcomes. We here describe recruitment problems we encountered. Methods We planned to approach all RVs in Auckland/Waitemata Districts, with random sampling of residents in each village using unit/apartment lists as the sampling frame. Exclusions: Refusal of/inability to consent (complying with NZ legislation; ACER<65, or person clinicians felt lacked capacity). We planned access via RV managers and contact residents by ‘letter-drop’ then ‘door-knocks’. In ‘small’ RVs (n<60 units), we planned to contact all residents, with random selection in ‘larger’ RVs. Results We approached managers of 53 of the 65 RVs. 38 initially replied positively, of which 34 permitted us to recruit residents, 6 did not reply. Another 9 declined our first approach, of which eight were ‘small’, seven independently-owned. Some managers prohibited ‘letter-drops’ or ‘door-knocks’ at all or without prior residents’ meetings to assess acceptance of this methodology. Hence, we had to recruit volunteers (in 23 villages) via residents’ meetings, posters/newsletters and word-of-mouth. We recruited 578 residents from 33 villages (one village had no volunteers) (median age=82yrs; 420 female; 217 sampled, 361 volunteers). Conclusions Due to organizational/managers’ policy, and the fact that NZ legislation did not allow recruitment of residents without legal capacity to consent, our sample does not fully represent our RV population. Future RV research should consider alternative recruitment strategies e.g. random sampling from national census, electoral roll, or via residents’ organizations.