Designer's Corner - Conducting Health Research with Vulnerable Women: Issues and Strategies

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the topic of women's health has garnered increased attention and research. However, health research with vulnerable groups of women has been limited. Vulnerable women are defined as women who are susceptible to harm because of their minority status, socio-economic status, or some other stigmatizing status (Demi & Warren, 1995). Other terms used to describe such women include disadvantaged, marginalized, and disenfranchised. According to the Prairie Women's Health Centre of Excellence (1998), marginalized groups of women in Canada include but are not limited to: Aboriginal women, women of colour, immigrant women, refugee women, disabled women, women living in northern locations, lesbians, elderly women, rural women, and farm women. These vulnerable women are at increased risk for health problems (Federal/Provincial/Territorial Working Group on Women's Health, 1990) and deserve to receive greater priority in research. Issues related to conducting health research with vulnerable women will be discussed and various strategies for dealing with these issues will be proposed. Issues Related to Recruitment and Retention Barriers to women's recruitment and participation in research must be identified and eliminated if we are to increase the number of participants. The issue is broader than recruiting women; it is recruiting women from diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, socio-economic, and age groups (Swanson & Ward, 1995). Barriers to participation include the time and inconvenience involved, negative personal and family attitudes