Clinical Research with Older African Americans and Latinos

Abstract

This study examines the social and health priorities of older African Americans and Latinos and their attitudes about participation in clinical research. Focus group discussions were conducted with older Latinos and African Americans, and a survey was mailed to key informants from 117 community-based organizations serving primarily older African Americans or Latinos. Results indicate that affordable housing, enough money to meet their needs, adequate transportation, and safer neighborhoods were urgent priorities for older Latinos and African Americans and superseded their health concerns. Distrust of researchers, lack of information, caregiver obligations, fear of experimentation, and lack of benefits were identified as barriers to research participation. Results indicate that community members are willing to participate in research provided they are fully informed of the research and perceive tangible benefits and congruence between the objectives of researchers and participants.

Recruitment Strategies for Studying Dementia in Later Life among Diverse Cultural Groups

“…22 Because trust is gained over time, it is important for researchers to acknowledge and encourage ongoing and frank discussions with their study participants in minority communities to build and retain trusting relationships. 5 With these general ideas on building community relations in mind, researchers can develop short-term or longstrategies, as well as a combination of the two, to involve local communities in research.…”

Perceptions from Latino and African American Older Adults about Biological Markers in Research

“…16, 17 Fewer studies have focused specifically on older ethnic minority adults. 18 One study of Latino and African-American older adults focused on health related quality of life and attitudes about their participation in general health research. 18 Some evidence suggests that training staff to address culturally and linguistically sensitive participant concerns helps improve participation in the collection of specimens such as dried blood spots.…”

Tips for research recruitment: The views of sexual minority youth

“…Sherriff et al, 2011;Silvestre et al, 2006). In addition to the need for trust, participants in the current study and other researchers have highlighted the need to address certain factors to encourage minority group participation, specifically: address the practical issues pertaining to transportation and the difficulties many participants face getting to certain locations (Fouad et al, 2004;Nápoles-Springer et al, 2000;Woods et al, 2002); attend to the need for adequate incentives/vouchers as an acknowledgement of the participant's input, and make sure that participants do not need to cover 'out of pocket costs' (Nápoles-Springer et al, 2000;Silvestre et al, 2006); ensure that the research is seen as a priority by others (Silvestre et al, 2006), or it is seen as an important area to study by the participants (Nápoles-Springer et al, 2000); make sure that the research procedures are not burdensome and do not 'clash' with participants' other commitments (Woods et al, 2002); be mindful of the stigma associated with being 'non-heterosexual' (Silvestre et al, 2006;Wheeler, 2003), especially for sexual minority youth; and, always treat participants with maximal respect (Silvestre et al, 2006).…”

“…Lee, 2002;Lucassen et al, 2013;Sherriff et al, 2011). Past research focused on overcoming the barriers associated with recruiting participants from minority populations focuses primarily on sexual minority adults or ethnic minority individuals (McCormack, 2014;Silvestre et al, 2006), with this body of literature indicating that minority communities have low levels of trust in researchers (Fouad et al, 2004;Nápoles-Springer et al, 2000;Silvestre et al, 2006). This paper reports on the views of a group of sexual minority youth who had previously taken part in a study (the Rainbow SPARX project) about what had enabled and encouraged their participation in research.…”