Objectives-We compared the influence of awareness of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the presidential apology for that study on the willingness of Blacks, non-Hispanic Whites, and Hispanics to participate in biomedical research.Requests for reprints should be sent to Ralph V. Katz, DMD, MPH, PhD, Professor and Chair, Department of Epidemiology & Health Promotion, NYU College of Dentistry, 345 E 24th St, MC-9416, New York, NY 10010 (e-mail: ralph.katz@nyu.edu). Contributors R. V. Katz originated and directed the study, led the development of the Tuskegee Legacy Project Questionnaire and the data analysis, wrote the initial draft of the article, and led the team's crafting of the final article. S. S. Kegeles, N. R. Kressin, S. A. James, and B. L. Green developed the Tuskegee Legacy Project Questionnaire, assisted with the writing of the grants that supported this research, helped plan the data analysis and data interpretation, and contributed to the writing of the final article. M. Q. Wang and S. L. Russell conducted the statistical analyses, helped to plan and finalize the data interpretation and contributed to the writing of the final article. C. Claudio helped plan the data analysis and data interpretation, and contributed to the writing of the final article.
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Author ManuscriptAm J Public Health. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2009 August 24.
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NIH-PA Author ManuscriptMethods-The Tuskegee Legacy Project Questionnaire was administered to 1133 adults in 4 US cities. This 60-item questionnaire addressed issues related to the recruitment of minorities into biomedical studies.Results-Adjusted multivariate analysis showed that, compared with Whites, Blacks were nearly 4 times as likely to have heard of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, more than twice as likely to have correctly named Clinton as the president who made the apology, and 2 to 3 times more likely to have been willing to participate in biomedical studies despite having heard about the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (odds ratio [OR]=2.9; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.4, 6.2) or the presidential apology (OR=2.3; 95% CI=1.4, 3.9).Conclusions-These marked differences likely reflect the cultural reality in the Black community, which has been accustomed to increased risks in many activities. For Whites, this type of information may have been more shocking and at odds with their expectations and, thus, led to a stronger negative impact.The US Public Health Service Tuskegee Syphilis Study is arguably the most infamous biomedical research study in US history. [1][2][3][4][5] This study enrolled 399 Black sharecroppers in Macon County, Ala, and studied the effects of not treating their syphilis. 6,7 There is widespread belief that the "legacy" of this unethical study is that the Black community has a greater reluctance to participate in clinical research studies because of the abuses foisted on the participants in that study. Although a considerable amount has been written about the long-lasting e...
