Development of a Minority Research Recruitment Database: Assessing Factors Associated with Willingness of African Americans to Enroll

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The Center for Minority Health (CMH) within the University of Pittsburgh has the mission to eliminate racial health disparities by 2010. One community-based intervention focuses on family health histories. Family health histories, or pedigrees, have been shown to be effective tools for identifying individuals at risk for common diseases who may benefit from increased screening or other risk reduction behaviors. Genetic counseling graduate students provide individuals with information pertaining to the importance of family history information in reducing the risk of chronic disease. Students travel to various locations in the African American community where they collect individuals’ family health histories. Individuals who participate have the opportunity to enroll in the Minority Research Recruitment Database from which they can be contacted regarding research for which they may qualify. This is the Center’s effort to increase minority recruitment. This has public health relevance given that minorities are often under-represented in research and it is thought that increasing minority recruitment will aid in elimination of racial health disparities. This study was developed to characterize individuals who elected to enroll in the database and compare them to those who declined enrollment. Factors for comparison include demographics, recruitment variables, opinions regarding research, health care, personal health, and family history. Factors were assessed for 126 participants of which approximately 80% enrolled in the database and 20% declined. Analysis revealed that those more likely to participate in the database were female, without health insurance, more likely to respond to monetary incentives, more likely to talk to their physician about concerns for developing a disease, and less likely to have previously refused participation in a clinical trial. These results indicate that women are more likely than men to seek health information that pertains to their family history, incentives act as a motivation for individuals to enroll in this database, and issues of distrust may still act as a barrier to research participation for African Americans.