The Feasibility Of Recruiting Partners Of Pregnant Persons For Research

PURPOSE: This study aims to assess the feasibility of recruiting and enrolling partners of pregnant participants into research and to examine demographic variables that predict partner enrollment. METHODS: The Partner Project is an ancillary project to the Pregnancy 24/7 Cohort Study that aims to assess lifestyle behaviors of partners across pregnancy. Participants enrolling in the Pregnancy 24/7 study from Iowa and West Virginia were given a brief description of the Partner Project and then asked if they have a partner who may be interested in enrolling. Best fit model selection determined the best predictors of partner enrollment based on demographic information (household income, site, education, rurality, employment status, age, and presence of children in the home) of the pregnant person in a logistic regression model. Odds ratios are reported from the best fitting model. RESULTS: Figure 1 depicts participant flow through recruitment and enrollment. The largest challenges to recruiting partners of pregnant people occurred in the early interest and screening phase. The best fitting model included site, education, and rurality. Pregnancy 24/7 participants who enrolled at the West Virginia site and have a college degree had 3.5x (OR: 3.5, 95%CI 1.35, 10.1) and 2.7x (OR: 2.7, 95%CI 0.99, 8.34) higher odds of having their partners enrolled, respectively. Rural residence was associated with a 60% reduction in odds of a partner enrolling (OR: 0.40, 95%CI 0.13, 1.08). While the best fitting model included site, education, and rurality, only site was statistically significant when all were included in the same model. Conclusions Once screening is completed, participants were highly likely to stay enrolled. Future studies may want to combine multiple recruitment approaches, such as direct advertising to partners. Different strategies may be needed to recruit participants with lower education and rural residence. Furthermore, locality may impact recruitment of partners. Supported by: R01 HL153095