Abstract 10714: Disparities in Cardiovascular Investigator-Initiated Research Studies

Abstract

Introduction: Recently there has been a much-needed focus on disparity and inequity in cardiovascular disease (CVD) care. Race, ethnicity, sex, and geography are shown to impact CVD care and outcomes. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is the lack of diversity and representation in CVD research studies, especially in non-sponsored research studies. Here we examine three investigator-initiated clinical CVD trials to describe current enrollment patterns and compare them to the comparable populations. Methods: Three Intermountain Healthcare, internally funded, CVD clinical trials were examined. These studies include a pragmatic trial, a randomized unblinded treatment trial, and a biobanking registry. Basic study characteristics and the comparison populations are shown in Table 1. Results: Demographic comparisons are shown in Table 2. Females were equally or slightly more represented in the studies. Minority races were under-represented in the pragmatic trial and the biobank registry. Rural or frontier counties were under-represented in the pragmatic trial and randomized trial. Hispanic/Latino patients were under-represented in all studies. Conclusions Females were well represented in all studies, but other minority groups were under-represented. The largest under-representation was for Hispanic/Latino patients. The reasons and mechanisms that may lead to under-representation and the impact on research results are unknown and deserve further study. While addressing these disparities may increase research costs (e.g., translation costs), future studies will benefit from the development of new resources and processes, and ultimately could lead to better care.