ABSTRACT
Despite prevailing myths of rural communities being culturally stagnant, rigid, and outdated, such areas are rich with ingenuity, creativity, and tradition, creating limitless opportunities for interested researchers. Hand-in-hand with these opportunities is challenges to research engagement. In rural areas, common barriers to recruitment of research subjects include their limited access to transportation, low literacy levels, a wide geographic spread between potential participants, and scarce resources within the community. In addition to relationship building, successful older adult rural recruitment entails overcoming persistent barriers within the rural context including lack of transportation, social isolation, and health and functional impairments more often found among rural-dwelling older adults. Another solution for increasing recruitment of rural research participants is the use of research registries, databases of individuals interested in volunteering for studies. The use of participatory action research has been shown to be an effective method for creating sustainable efforts that can both engage and empower individuals and communities as both participants and co-researchers.
