Examining Issues Affecting African American Participation in Research Studies

Abstract

This article reviews literature on research issues influencing African American participation as participants in medical, nursing, education, and mental health studies between 1990 and 2007. Identified factors affecting African American participation include the following: distrust owing to historical research abuse and institutional racism, lack of information and understanding of research studies and informed consent, insufficient recruitment efforts by researchers, social stigma, and financial considerations. Recommendations for improving the research process include examining researchers’ motivation and their understanding of African American sociocultural context, implementing culturally sensitive research, employing intervention research, conducting community participatory research, utilizing community-based recruitment strategies, and developing an awareness and sensitivity toward African American diversity.

Nursing Assistants’ Response to Participation in the Pilot Worksite Heart Health Improvement Project (WHHIP): A Qualitative Study

“…Given the many known benefits of WHP programs and NAs' risk for CVD, it is critical that WHP programs be offered to NAs. This study provides essential formative data that can aid in the design of future behavior change WHP programs in a high-risk population that is often underrecruited for health-promotion programs and, once recruited, they often experience additional barriers to retention (Huang & Coker, 2010;Yancey et al, 2006;Yancu et al, 2011). Successful behavior change interventions among these individuals have the potential to prevent the development and/or progression of CVD and serve as a model for changing other types of NAs' health behaviors (e.g., smoking/tobacco use).…”

Commentary: Building an Evidence Base for Promoting Informed Prostate Cancer Screening Decisions: An Overview of a Cancer Prevention and Control Program

“…14 It also is well-documented that AAs' spiritual needs play a pivotal role in influencing their participation in research. 16,17 However, there had been no previous study on PrCA education and informed decision-making in South Carolina that included AA men and women. Therefore, in 2010, the CPCP developed and evaluated a PrCA education intervention as part of a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded cancer disparities network grant (U54 CA153461).…”

Uniting Postcolonial, Discourse, and Linguistic Theory to Explore Participation of African Americans in Cancer Research as an Effect of Social and Historical Race Relationships

“…1,[3][4][5][6][7] Despite the literature emphasizing these deficits, African Americans continue to be a disproportionately underrepresented population in cancer clinical trials. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] Research studies often report health disparities as numerical values of cancer cases, cancer deaths, participation or nonparticipation in clinical trials, income level, education level, gender, and reported age groups. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] These are meaningful data that need to be incorporated as part of 34 ADVANCES IN NURSING SCIENCE/JANUARY-MARCH 2014 a strategy to improve recruitment of African Americans to clinical trials.…”

“…More community-based participatory research is needed to engage the African American community in the research process from generating research questions through the translation of research outcomes for the African American community. 16,18 Community partnerships are critical to combine knowledge and action for social change to improve communication, and trust within the health care/research environment. Understanding how race as a conscious and unconscious mechanism in our society operates through cultural and social practices will be critical for researchers to create meaningful and successful recruitment strategies for African Americans into cancer clinical trials.…”