A Dedicated Spanish Language Line Increases Enrollment of Hispanics Into Prehospital Clinical Research.

Abstract

Novel methods are needed to reduce the disparity of Hispanic enrollment in stroke clinical trials. Prehospital enrollment using a dedicated Spanish language line may help overcome this bias. Subjects or legally authorized representatives provided information on race and ethnicity for all cases enrolled in the FAST-MAG clinical trial (Field Administration of Stroke Therapy-Magnesium), a prehospital phase 3 randomized study of intravenous magnesium for neuroprotection. One of 2 in-ambulance cell phones (in English or Spanish) was used to obtain informed content in the field. We describe the yield and characteristics of subjects enrolled via Spanish line. There were 1700 subjects enrolled from 2005 to 2012, of which 402 (24%) identified as Hispanic ethnicity. Study racial makeup was 1325 (78%) white, 219 (13%) black, and 139 (8%) Asian. The dedicated Spanish line was used for 195 (12%) enrollments. Spanish-line enrollments were younger (65 versus 70 years old; P<0.001), more likely to identify as Hispanic (98% versus 14%; P<0.001), and more likely to present with intracerebral hemorrhage (36% versus 21%; P<0.001). The use of a dedicated Spanish language enrollment line allowed for greater enrollment of Hispanics, a population with significantly different baseline characteristics. URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00059332.