Reflections and Challenges of Pregnant and Postpartum Participant Recruitment in the Context of the Opioid Epidemic.

PURPOSE: Opioid use disorder among women of childbearing age has reached epidemic proportions. In rural regions of the United States, recruiting perinatal women who use nonmedical opioids to participate in research is wrought with challenges, including barriers such as community stigma, lack of transportation, and time constraints. The current study describes our process and challenges of recruiting pregnant and postpartum women in rural Indiana consisting of women who misuse opioids and those who do not. DESCRIPTION: We employed multiple strategies to recruit participants. Methods included (1) sampling from healthcare facilities based on referrals from front-desk staff and frontline healthcare workers; (2) dissemination of flyers and brochures within healthcare facilities and the community, supported with onsite research assistant presence; (3) digital methods coupled with snowball sampling; and (4) local community talks that provided information about the study. ASSESSMENT: Our multiple recruitment efforts revealed that building relationships with community stakeholders was key in recruiting women who use nonmedical opioids, but that digital methods were more effective in recruiting a larger sample of pregnant and postpartum women in a short amount of time. CONCLUSION: We conclude by making several recommendations to enhance academic-community partnerships in order to bolster sample sizes for prolonged research studies. Furthermore, we highlight the need to destigmatize addiction in order to better serve hard-to-reach populations through research and practice.

Mobilizing culture as an asset: a transdisciplinary effort to rethink gender violence.

The contested relationship between gender violence and the "culture concept" can be found in the cultural defense of gender violence, gender violence linked to postcolonial retraditionalizations of family life, the underpolicing of gender violence associated with communities labeled as culturally backward, and the overpolicing of activities categorized by human rights advocates as harmful traditional practices. Culture has been used to defend, explain, or excuse gender violence, and seen as a barrier to the elimination of gender violence. Here, however, the authors analyze how culture has been mobilized strategically as a resource in the struggle against gender violence.