Health and medical
research has an important role in society. It helps us to
understand the prevalence, correlates and predictors of
the mortality and morbidity that occurs in our communities,
and informs our decisions about which prevention,
health promotion and care strategies are needed.
In practice, however, the challenging environment in
which health research is often conducted can make the
task of attracting adequate numbers of participants and,
in the case of intervention and clinical outcome studies,
retaining involvement over time, a difficult one.