Recruiting older African American men to a cancer screening trial (the AAMEN Project).

Authors

Ford ME, Havstad SL, Tilley BC

Affiliations

• Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA. mford@bcm.tmc.edu

Abstract

PURPOSE: This article describes the demographic characteristics of participants in a randomized trial (the AAMEN Project) designed to recruit older (aged 55+ years) African American men to a cancer screening trial.

DESIGN AND METHODS: The AAMEN Project is a recruitment trial developed for African American men aged 55+ years living in southeastern Michigan.

RESULTS: Of the 34,376 African American men in the study, 37.6% had low incomes and 62.4% had moderate-to-high incomes. The average age of the men was 63.3 years (SD = 5.9 years). Among men who were eligible and interested in participating, the proportion of men with low incomes was significantly greater than the proportion of men with moderate-to-high incomes (p <.001).

IMPLICATIONS: The AAMEN Project demonstrated success in recruiting a substantial proportion of men with low incomes as well as men with moderate-to-high incomes. These findings may facilitate the development of future recruitment efforts involving older African American men.