? Recruitment and Retention Core The Recruitment and Retention Core (RRC) has three goals: First, to recruit and engaged an enthusiastic participant pool of 2,250 Black, Hispanic and White participants with incidental white matter hyperintensities (WMH) and cognitive complaints. Second, to assess the degree of cognitive impairment of the participants at baseline and over time to characterize the development and etiology of the cognitive impairments. Third, retain these individuals throughout the project period to enhance the power of this repeated measures design. UC Davis is a national leader for minority recruitment and retention due to its commitment to the principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR). Over its 28 year history, the UC Davis ADRC has developed robust outreach and recruitment processes that reliably identifies, efficiently screens, and clearly consents a highly diverse cohort of participants. The RRC will implement UCD ADRC's successful CBPR toolbox and create a catalog of e-tools to facilitate precision engagement and significantly enhance site recruitment efforts using novel digital media outreach tools. These e-tools also will promote efficient use of core resources by maximizing community engagement by tailoring messaging to the interests of specific subpopulations identified in market analysis conducted by experienced UCD staff and faculty. The RRC will phase-in study resources over 3 epochs. The first epoch (months 1-9) will focus on disseminating existing UCD ADRC core resources broadly and taking feedback from participating centers to enhance/tailor these resources for each site. Second (months 1-12), while the existing programs are harmonizing, new digital media will be created. Because this study tracks the cognitive trajectories of older adults moving from health into cognitive impairment we will focus our immediate effort on creating resources to attract these participants. Third (months 13-24), after we have created the media supports for participants at study entry, we will then focus on curating new digital materials to support our participants through cognitive aging and into early dementia to support retention. The proposed development and dissemination of an e-toolbox with expert support and guidance from the RRC will be the first time that digital media will be used in the outreach and engagement with communities of color with messaging that is tailored to the interests of specific subpopulations identified in market analysis. The major impact of this core will be the creation of a sophisticated set of technical resources that participating sites can implement to enhance their recruitment, assessment and retention of URGs. As a mature ADC with deep knowledge and experience for recruiting, assessing and retaining URGs, we are well-situated to lead this multisite cooperative network. Our emphasis will be on supporting the sites to apply culturally appropriate recruiting, consenting and assessment which will create a welcoming study environment to enhance retention of Blacks and Hispanics who we have long failed to include.
