Please join us for our next CBSSM 2013-2014 seminar:

"RETHINKING MINORITY PARTICIPATION IN CLINICAL TRIALS:
MORE THAN MISTRUST"

Aisha Langford, PhD, MPH, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, VA & CBSSM

Summary: The underrepresentation of minorities has received considerable attention since the 1990s when NIH required that all sponsored research include adequate representation of women and minorities. Without the full participation of minority groups in medical research, it is difficult to assess the effectiveness of therapies across populations and to evaluate disparities in non-medical factors that may impact how patients develop and manage health conditions. In this talk, I will share results from my dissertation research. In study 1, I examined the willingness of African Americans to participate in a future clinical trial. In study 2, I examined racial/ethnic differences in clinical trial enrollment, refusal, ineligibility, and desire to participate in medical research among cancer patients in the National Cancer Institute’s Community Cancer Centers Program. In study 3, I examined enrollment into the U-M Clinical Studies Registry among African Americans.

My overaching hypothesis is that medical mistrust and knowledge of the US Public Health Service Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male are not the underlying drivers of low minority participation in clinical trials. Instead, I suggest that African Americans are willing to participate and will enroll in clinical trials at rates equivalent to other racial and ethnic groups when explicitly invited and given the opportunity.