Abstract 11893: Women, Ethnic, and Racial Groups Are Underreported and Underrepresented in Atrial Fibrillation Clinical Trials

Abstract

Introduction: Women, ethnic, and racial group representation in clinical trials is low or uncertain in various fields of medicine. Hypothesis: Ethnic/racial information is underreported in atrial fibrillation clinical Trials. Methods: We systematically reviewed 85 randomized atrial fibrillation clinical trials (RCT), published with results on ClinicalTrials.gov, encompassing 2,546,351 participants from January 2011 to May 2021. We determined the representation of women and ethnic/racial groups, and the frequency of information reporting. Results: All of the studies reported gender information; women represented 33.73% of the participants. Only 56.5% (48/75) reported racial/ethnic data. The distribution of the participants were 87% White and 5.1% Black. Data on Latinx were reported in 38% (33/85) of RCTs and represented 5% of reported samples. Only 3.8% of participants were Asian and reported in 34 studies. Ethnic and racial group underrepresentation and underreporting were observed in trials involving device/procedure as well as drug therapy, with more underrepresentation and underreporting observed in drug therapy trials (Table). Conclusions: Gender reporting is consistent for all RCTs but with women representing only one-third of participants. However, the ethnic and racial characteristics, particularly in drug therapy trials, are underreported. In RCTs that report ethnic and racial data, Black and Latinx patients are underrepresented compared to their proportion in the overall population. These limitations may significantly impact the generalizability of the RCT results.